JOHN LOTT IN THE MARYLAND LAW REVIEW: What A Balancing Test Will Show For Right-To-Carry Laws. (PDF). Key bit: “If right-to-carry laws either reduce crime or leave it unchanged and if no one argues that they lead to more accidental gun deaths or suicides, regulations prohibiting people from carrying concealed handguns cannot withstand either strict or intermediate scrutiny. This Essay will review the empirical evidence of the impact carry laws have on crime rates and conclude that such laws cannot survive strict or intermediate scrutiny because they do not further the govern- ment’s interest in public safety.”