So why do they always shoot up schools, churches, and government buildings?
Time after time multiple- victim public shootings occur in “gun free zones” — public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The horrible attack today in Binghamton, New York is no different. Every multiple-victim public shooting that I have studied, where more than three people have been killed, has taken place where guns are banned.
Lott’s analyses with William Landes of the University of Chicago seem to show that the sole law that seems to deter these shootings is concealed carry of handguns, as the sole deterrent for many of these psychos is being killed before they “make their point” by killing a certain number of people or garnering a certain amount of attention. Greater punishment (including the death penalty, if the ŒV is recalling right—he read these years ago) has a negligible effect because the shooters usually expect to be killed or to kill themselves.
Lott, John R. and Landes, William M., Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement (April 1999). University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 73.
Lott, John R. and Landes, William M., Multiple Victim Public Shootings (October 19, 2000).
And, because irony is cheap, Lott notes on his blog, there will be six more anti-gun bills introduced in New York this week.
Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.