The study examined what happens to crime rates in counties that have passed laws letting citizens carry concealed weapons. The implications of this study intersect with the Jonesboro tragedy. Lott then cited his own study as evidence supporting the thesis that if teachers in Arkansas could have borne concealed weapons, they might have been able to defend the students against attack. The fight over the right to carry concealed weapons is perhaps the most hotly contested battleground in the gun world today. And the publication of the Lott-Mustard study on the Net has played a role in that success, say both gun control and gun rights activists.
People always refer to it.
I think there is a direct connection. The Lott-Mustard study is impossible to miss. According to Lott, its primary author, there were 46,000 downloads of the paper in the five months following its August 1996 Web publication. When you are talking about tens of thousands downloading a paper, it's pretty overwhelming. There is a downside to Net publication, of course.