GUNS: Funny, the posting that generated the most email was on SUVs, but I get the most hatemail on guns and Saudi Arabia. I guess this means that Saudi-supporters tend to be unarmed, which I take as a positive note; I rather doubt that this coincidence is logically related, but on the other hand the overlap between the sets of Saudi-supporters and gun-haters seems surprisingly high.

At any rate, varous people have asked me about mass shootings. I’m not deeply interested in the criminology of guns; my work is on the Second Amendment side, which is different. But you can read this paper by John Lott and William Landes on mass shootings and gun control if you’re interested.

UPDATE: Boy that was fast. A reader observes that there is a logical connection. Since, in the minds of America-haters, guns represent America, to hate America is to hate guns. (This connection of hating America with love for personal disarmament strikes me as a very clever meme for America to propagate. . . .) To support the Saudi regime in Arabia you don’t actually have to hate America, but it helps, so I suppose there’e explanation for the overlap.