A major new
report
by the National Academies of Science declares that there is no persuasive proof that gun control works, or that gun ownership reduces crime. The study calls for more data collection on gun violence. In a Tech Central Station article today, my co-authors and I argue for collection of another type of nearly non-existent data: how often crimes are interrupted as a result of a 911 call. If the percentage is not very high (and the small amount of research suggests that the figure is no higher than 35% under optimal assumptions), then the government would seem to have no plausible claim to have moral authority to prevent people from protecting themselves.
Moreover, since 43 state constitutions clearly guarantee an individual right to arms (as I’ve detailed in a law review article), and since the Department of Justice has affirmed its traditional position that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, then the social presumption should clearly be against new anti-gun laws, and in favor of repeal of many such existing laws. After all, constitutional rights are supposed to be restricted only when there is an important need to do so–not when social scientists can find no evidence that such restrictions accomplish any good.
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