Die aktuelle Diskussion um die Verschärfung des Waffenrechts mag es rechtfertigen, auf eine bereits zehn Jahre alte Untersuchung aus den USA hinzuweisen, die sich dadurch auszeichnet, dass sie auf der Hitliste des Social Science Research Network steht. Das Abstract wurde bisher 140.481 Mal aufgerufen, das ganze Manuskript 46.348 Mal heruntergeladen. Auch wenn vermutlich viele der Interessenten nicht aus dem Wissenschaftssystem, sondern aus der Waffenlobby kommen, so bleiben die Zahlen doch beeindruckend.
Es handelt sich also um John R. Lott und William M Landes, Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement(April 1999). University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 73. Verfügbar bei SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=161637 or DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.161637.
Hier das Abstract: Few events obtain the same instant worldwide news coverage as multiple victim public shootings. These crimes allow us to study the alternative methods used to kill a large number of people (e.g., shootings versus bombings), marginal deterrence and the severity of the crime, substitutability of penalties, private versus public methods of deterrence and incapacitation, and whether attacks produce copycats. Yet, economists have not studied this phenomenon. Our results are surprising and dramatic. While arrest or conviction rates and the death penalty reduce normal murder rates, our results find that the only policy factor to influence multiple victim public shootings is the passage of concealed handgun laws. We explain why public shootings are more sensitive than other violent crimes to concealed handguns, why the laws reduce both the number of shootings as well as their severity, and why other penalties like executions have differential deterrent effects depending upon the type of murder.