The Washington Times

June 17, 2000, Saturday, Final Edition

SECTION: PART A; NATION; Pg. A2

LENGTH: 383 words

HEADLINE: Researcher: Fight crime with concealed guns

BODY: Teresa Joerger

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The most overlooked crime-fighting tool is a concealed gun, a Yale Law School researcher told a Washington audience yesterday.

“Arrest rates and conviction rates were the most important determinants of crime,” said John Lott in a speech at the Cato Institute yesterday about his research on gun ownership. But, “of all the different types of gun-control laws I’ve examined, only right-to-carry concealed-handgun laws had a systematic benefit.”

Mr. Lott’s book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” which had its second edition released yesterday, cites data showing that in states that have a “right-to-carry” law, violent-crime rates fell 2.3 percent, murder rates fell by 1.5 percent, and rape, robbery and aggravated-assault rates fell by about 3 percent.

Mr. Lott advocates right-to-carry laws, which give law-abiding citizens a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Such laws now exist in 31 states.

For each 1 percent of the population with a concealed-weapon permit in the states that have such laws, Mr. Lott said, 432 lives are saved yearly, 3,862 rapes are prevented, 35,014 robberies are stopped and there are about 29,000 fewer aggravated assaults.

Mr. Lott said that while well-publicized arrest rates, conviction rates and longer prison sentences deter crime, it is further prevented by potential victims being able to defend themselves if attacked, especially because police can not be everywhere at once.

“Bad things happen with guns, and guns make it easier for bad things to happen. But guns can also make it easier for people to protect themselves and prevent bad things from happening,” he said.

Mr. Lott also said that permit holders act responsibly.

“What you find is that the types of people who go and get permits are extremely law-abiding,” he said.

Mr. Lott said that the benefits of having more people carrying guns even makes the nation safer for those who don’t carry guns.

“The fact that some people out there are able to carry a concealed handgun raises the risks for criminals attacking people who may never even think about having a gun and the large benefits are shown as a result of this,” he said.

Well-intentioned gun-control laws, such as the Brady Law waiting period, have the opposite effect, he said.