ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608120035
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Letting law-abiding people carry concealed handguns could have prevented 1,570 murders and 4,177 rapes in 1992, according to a new study. Gun control advocates disputed the study's conclusions Friday.
The study, relying on crime data for U.S. counties from 1977 through 1992, said an additional 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided if states with concealed weapon bans had instead allowed them in 1992.
The study said concealed handguns ``have their greatest deterrent effect'' in areas with the highest crime rates. Criminals instead tend to turn to property crimes in states with such laws, the study said.
``By the very nature of these guns being concealed, criminals are unable to tell whether the victim is armed before they strike, thus raising criminals' expected costs for committing many types of crimes,'' a professor and a graduate student at the University of Chicago say in the draft study dated July 13.
Co-author John Lott Jr., a visiting fellow at the university's law school, discussed the study Thursday at a seminar organized by the conservative Cato Institute.
Laws allowing people without criminal records to apply for licenses to carry concealed weapons now exist in about two dozen states.
Gun control advocates have said in the past that declining crime rates in states that allow concealed handguns are caused by the waiting period now imposed on handgun purchases by federal law.
The principal author of that law, Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the new study Friday. ``This gun study makes a pie-in-the-sky claim with only flawed science and a questionable agenda to back it up,'' said Schumer, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime.
Douglas Weil, research director at the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, said the study ``goes against well-established evidence'' to the contrary. He cited a University of Maryland study last year showing that murders committed with guns increased when concealed weapons were allowed by law.
Such laws make criminals more likely to arm themselves with deadly weapons and use them more quickly, Weil said.
Lott's academic position is funded by a grant from the Olin Foundation, which is headed by members of the family that founded Olin Corp. but is not connected with it. Olin's Winchester division manufactures bullets.
``Olin Corp. did not fund that study,'' said company spokesman Bill McDaniel in Norwalk, Conn. He said there was no connection between the company and the foundation, and he did not know whether the foundation had provided any money.
A telephone message left at the foundation's office wasn't immediately returned.
Lott said Thursday he has had no contact with people at the foundation.
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