From the first link...
Regarding the eighteen recent studies finding a benefit from right-to-carry laws [see Table 2 above], here are some of the com- ments.
• Florenz Plassmann and Nicolaus Tideman find that “right-to- carry laws do help on average to reduce the number of these crimes.”41
• Carl Moody explains that his findings “confirm and reinforce the basic findings of the original Lott and Mustard study.”42
41. Florenz Plassmann & T. Nicolaus Tideman, Does the Right to Carry Concealed Hand- guns Deter Countable Crimes? Only a Count Analysis Can Say, 44 J.L. & ECON. 771, 796 (2001).
AND ECONOMICS, 2001. 7) Mustard, JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2001. 8) Olsen & Maltz, JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2001. 9) Plassmann & Tideman, JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2001. 10) Marvel, JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2001. 11) Lott & Whitley, JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2001. 12) Lott & Whitley, JOURNAL OF QUANTITATIVE CRIMINOLOGY, 2003. 13) Helland & Tabarrok, ADVANCES IN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND POLICY, 2004. 14) Wilson, NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS, 2005. 15) Lott & Whitley, ECONOMIC INQUIRY, 2007. 16) Moody & Marvel, ECON WATCH, 2008. 17) Kendall & Tamura, JOURNAL OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2010. 18) Lott, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 2010.
OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, 2001. 6) Duwe, Kovandzic & Moody, HOMICIDE STUDIES, 2002. 7) Kovandzic & Mar- vell, CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, 2003. 8) Dezhbakhsh & Ru- bin, INT’L REV. OF LAW AND ECONOMICS, 2003. 9) National Research Council, NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS, 2005. 10) Kovandzic, Mar- vell & Vieraiis, HOMICIDE STUDIES, 2005.
Non-Refereed Publications by Academics
1) Bronars & Lott, AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, 1998. 2) Plassmann & Whitley, 55 STAN. L. REV. 1313 (2003). 3) Lott & Landes, THE BIAS AGAINST GUNS, 2003.
1) Ayres & Donohue, AMERICAN LAW AND ECONOMICS REVIEW, 1999 (book review).
1)Ayres & Dono- hue, 55 STAN. L. REV. 1193 (2003). See also Donohue, 2003. 2) Ayres & Do- nohue, ECON WATCH, 2009.2012]
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A BALANCING TEST FOR RIGHT-TO-CARRY LAWS 1215
In another paper that studies county crime rates from 1977 un- til 2000, co-authored by Moody and Thomas Marvell, the au- thors write that “the evidence, such as it is, seems to support the hypothesis that the shall-issue law is generally beneficial with respect to its overall long run effect on crime.”43
Eric Helland and Alex Tabarrok studied county crime rates from 1977 to 2000 to conclude that “shall-issue laws cause a large and significant drop in the murder trend rate” and that “there is considerable support for the hypothesis that shall- issue laws cause criminals to substitute away from crimes against persons and towards crimes against property.”44
David Olsen and Michael Maltz found “a decrease in total ho- micides,” however the different set of data they use shows that the decrease was driven by a drop in gun killings.45 Bruce Benson and Brent Mast found that their results “are vir- tually identical to those in [Lott and Mustard]. Therefore, the hypothesis that the [Lott and Mustard estimates] suffer from missing-variable bias owing to the lack of control for the private security industry is rejected . . . .”46
David Mustard supplies evidence that “[a]fter enactment of the right-to-carry laws, states exhibit a reduced likelihood of having felonious police deaths . . . .”47 The late James Q. Wilson, often described as the preeminent criminologist in the United States, reviewed a report on Fire- arms and Violence published by the National Academy of Sciences and found that while there might be disagreement over some types of violent crime, “I find that the evidence pre- sented by Lott and his supporters suggests that RTC laws do in fact help drive down the murder rate.”48
42. Carlisle E. Moody, Testing for the Effects of Concealed Weapons Laws: Specification Errors and Robustness, 44 J.L. & ECON. 799, 799–813 (2001).
43. Carlisle E. Moody & Thomas B. Marvell, The Debate on Shall-Issue Laws, 5 ECON. J. WATCH 269, 292 (2008).
44. See Helland & Tabarrok, supra note 38.
45. David. E. Olsen & Michael D. Maltz, Right-to Carry Concealed Weapons Laws and Ho- micide in Large U.S. Counties: The Effect on Weapons Types, Victim Characteristics, and Victim- Offender Relationships, 44 J.L. & ECON. 747, 759 (2001).
46. Bruce L. Benson & Brent D. Mast, Privately Produced General Deterrence, 44 J.L. & ECON. 725, 734−35 (2001).
47. David B. Mustard, The Impact of Gun Laws on Police Deaths, 44 J.L. & ECON. 635 (2001).
48. James Q. Wilson, “Dissent,” Appendix A, in FIREARMS AND VIOLENCE: A CRITICAL REVIEW 271 (Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper & Carol V. Petrie eds., 2005).
1216 MARYLAND LAW REVIEW [Vol. 71:1205
• My work with John Whitley finds that “the longer a right-to- carry law is in effect, the greater the drop in crime.”49
These researchers have used a variety of approaches: different statistical techniques, different data sets, different control variables, or a variety of specifications. Yet, despite these alternative set ups, the consensus is the same: right-to-carry laws reduce violent crime.50
