Armed Correlations

[DanTex]

11. You are right that the gun nuts will dismiss any scientific evidence, regardless of the quality.

In fact, this is a general tendency of conservatives in all areas, not just guns.

Regarding John Lott, that is an interesting story. True, at this point Lott is transparent pro-gun propaganda, but it wasn't always that way. At first, his research was taken seriously. But then the problems began to show up. His statistical methods were brittle and sensitive to changes in assumptions or specifications. His results weren't able to be replicated with extended data. And then of course he went off the rails, some data coding "errors" were found in his subsequent work, he invented an internet sock puppet and went around the internet praising himself, he fabricated a statistic in a major op-ed, etc.