All Postings from June 2004

6/30/04
CSPAN rerunning for fourth time my conference on voting

At 5:50 EDT today CSPAN3 will rerun the conference that took place on 6/21 (see below).

6/30/04
Exploding the Fireworks Safety 'Threat'

My latest piece with Ruth Smith is out in The Los Angeles Times: "This issue is badly distorted by the media. A search of the top 100 newspapers found 140 news stories in the last year warning that fireworks could be deadly if used improperly. But, despite this edge to the coverage, on average just six people a year died in fireworks-related incidents from 1990 to 2002. And many of those deaths occurred at professional fireworks displays."

6/29/04
Add Gun Control To Litany Of Misbegotten Gov't Plans

My latest piece is out in Investor's Business Daily: "Repealing gun control laws might not solve the crime problems in the U.K. and Australia overnight, but the exploding crime rates (including gun crime) in countries that have banned guns shows that we can add gun control to the list of government planning efforts that do not live up to their billing. Its failures have become too overwhelming to ignore."

6/28/04
Female clerk defends herself from robbers

"After the clerk handed over about $200 in cash, the chief said, the robber threatened to kill her anyway. That's when the clerk pulled out her own handgun. The robber ran out of the store . . ."

6/25/04
More Lott, Less Moore

For an amusing op-ed by Mike Adams see here.

6/24/04
Saudi Arabia adopts concealed carry for foreigners

Faced with terrorists threatening foreigners, the Saudi government has adopted concealed carry laws for foreigners.

6/24/04
Three concealed permit holders in Minnesota capture young murderer

The Star Tribune is getting a little better, but still misses out on the fact that the three men who caught this person had concealed handgun permits.

6/23/04
Review of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge's new book, "The Right Nation."

Tech Central Station has my review of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge's new book, "The Right Nation."

6/22/04
Canada's Murder Rate Over the Last Six Years

Canadian long gun and shot gun registration was started in December 1998 and the guns were supposed to be registered by January 2001, though there was an extension until July 2001. Crime rates continued falling during the first full year of the program but rose consistent every year thereafter and in the lastest numbers for 2002 ended up higher than the last year prior to the law (1998).

Maxim Lott brought the debate over these numbers to my attention.

6/22/04
On Tuesday CSPAN3 will replay the first panel debating on 2000 Florida vote from my conference yesterday

AEI had an interesting conference that I set up on Monday to discuss: Preventing Another Florida?: Will the Changes Make Things Better? CSPAN3 will be showing this on Tuesday starting at 6:52 PM and it goes until almost 9 PM.

6/22/04
The Public's Response to Michael Moore's Sources?
(This was provided to me by Dan Gifford.)

David Letterman: How do we know what's in your film [Fahrenheit 9/11] is true?
Michael Moore: Because I got most of my information from The New York Times.
Audience: Wild laughter.
Letterman: [Strains to repress laughing]
Moore: What's so funny?

Late Show with David Letterman
June 18, 2004
Correction: It appears that the text of this is somewhat different than I was first told: