HERE’S A STORY on the Lott/Ayres/Donohue fight over guns that’s rather sympathetic to Lott.

What’s most striking to me, though, is another study, by antigun researchers, that tries to measure gun ownership by suicide rates. (And it’s not mentioned here, but I believe there was another that tried to use subscriptions to gun magazines as a proxy.) This seems rather bogus to me, and I can only imagine the general derision if this kind of proxy were employed by researchers whose work supported gun ownership.

While people throw stones at Lott, whether deservedly or not, it’s worth remembering that the anti-gun side has been throwing out utter bilge disguised as “research” for years without a peep from the usual guardians of scientific rigor.

UPDATE: Tim Lambert emails that Gary Kleck uses the suicides-as-proxy methodology in his work. That’s news to me, but then, as I’ve said before, the criminology side of these things is not my area of expertise. I’ve asked him for details.

ANOTHER UPDATE: For more on the bogus science I’m referring to, here’s an article on the CDC and its anti-gun research. This is worth reading, too.