What are the indications that Lotts study of changes in concealed carry laws is flawed?
Apart from the obvious mistakes (e.g., Lott’s inability to accurately identify when states changed their carry laws), several researchers have shown that small changes in the statistical models Lott uses to reach his conclusions result in large changes in his findings ñ an important indication that his research is fundamentally flawed. Researchers who have reanalyzed Lott’s data, for example, found no beneficial impact from changes in carry laws when Florida was not included in the study, or when they restricted their analysis to counties that had populations greater than 100,000 people. Q: Doesn’t Lott implicitly acknowledge that his work is fundamentally flawed because he does not account for other factors which could affect both the crime rate and the decision by state legislators to change carry laws? A: Yes. On page 153 of More Guns, Less Crime, Lott writes that ìThe more serious possibility is that some other factor may have caused both the reduction in crime rates and the passag
