The Bias Against Guns
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The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong is a book by John Lott, following up on his controversial More Guns, Less Crime.
Lott contends that news media ignore or downplay stories and statistics which, he says, prove his claim that widespread gun ownership prevents crime.
He argues that the criminals are deterred by the fear that a potential victim may be armed. He further argues that disarming law-abiding citizens decreases this deterrence, thus increasing crime by the very means which gun control proponents say ought to reduce crime.
Under this rubric, another problem arises, however: The householder or other putative victim has a strong incentive to shoot the intruder or accoster fatally, so as to foreclose the possibility of future lawsuits or prosecutions. "Dead men tell no tales," not even to the police. A pro-gun person added this parenthetical item to the problem description: "(assuming the incentive of defending one's life and property wasn't enough)". The discussion was not, however, about stopping the intruder with a disabling shot, or, like the Lone Ranger, shooting the gun out of his hand; it was about killing him versus disabling him.