Anyone who has lived as close as we do to New Orleans must know that its young, energetic mayor, Marc Morial, has been a great asset to that city. Among his many steps forward have come a few steps back. His most recent step back involves his lawsuit against gun makers for not employing gun locks and some new high-tech devices that prevent a gun's firing by those who haven't been "pre-authorized" to shoot it.

While the techno-wizardry behind such devices is fascinating, the wisdom of such a lawsuit, which seeks to blame New Orleans' gun violence on accidental firings and stolen weapons, appears misguided. Going after the gun manufacturers instead of the city's violent citizens is reminiscent of comedian Flip Wilson's "the devil made me do it" routine (it is also an example of the "punishment dilemma" I wrote about in my recent column on pain of the impeachment process). It is also interesting that, as pointed out by recent letter to the editor in the Time-Picayune, Mayor Morial failed to specify that new weapons recently purchased by the New Orleans Police Department come with the new devices.

There are three basic problems with Morial's lawsuit. First, safety devices may make things more dangerous, the opposite of what was intended. Seat belts make a car less safe to those not in the car as the driver feels safer and tends to drive a little faster and take a few more chances. Harvard Professor Kip Viscusi has shown that childproof caps have led to poisonings of children as adults are lulled into a feeling of safety and take fewer precautions to keep their medications out of the reach of children.

Second, gun locks and the newer high-tech devices do not work perfectly. As a result, a whole new area of litigation is opened up, as cases are brought against the companies because of the failure of these devices.

Last, and perhaps most important, is that the lawsuit ignores the deterrent effect of guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Requiring gun manufacturers to install such devices would dramatically raise the price of a gun, reducing the number of guns in the hands of the law abiders, destroying one of the most effective crime deterrents we have.

Don't take my word on the effect of guns in citizens' hands on crime. In a January 1997 article in the Journal of Legal Studies, John Lott and David Mustard show rather conclusively that laws that give law-abiding citizens the right to carry concealed handguns have drastically reduced violent crime rates where such laws have been passed. Lott has extended his original work into a new book, More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (University of Chicago Press). Professor Lott is the John M. Ohlin Law and Economics Fellow at the University of Chicago and is the author of over 70 articles in leading journals. He was the chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission during 1988 and 1989.

Lott and Mustard, in an article in the Journal of Legal Studies, examined crime data for every county in the United States from 1977 to 1992. They found that if right-to-carry concealed guns laws were passed in the states that did not have such laws by 1992, 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes and more than 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided. They also found that criminals avoided crimes that were likely to involve face-to-face confrontations with victims, but, as predicted by basic economic theory, criminals seemed to substitute into crimes that involved stealth and did not involve contact with victims.

The lawsuit by Morial is an attempt to take the blame for a problem away from those who are violent in New Orleans and place it on the manufacturers, who are not in a very good position to stop violence in New Orleans. This is another move to make caveat venditor, "let the seller beware," the rule in product liability cases. On top of that, those who are in a position to stop violence, the victims, are denied the chance to protect themselves if guns are made unaffordable.

Just think how little duck hunting there would be if the ducks could shoot back. Instead, Mayor Morial would rather make us all sitting ducks.

Academic Articles by John Lott on concealed handguns:

Crime, deterrence, and right-to-carry concealed handguns, written with David Mustard (Journal of Legal Studies, Jan 1997)

The concealed-handgun debate, (Journal of Legal Studies, Jan 1998).

Op-Ed articles by Lott on hand guns:

How to stop mass public shootings, by John Lott, LA Times, 5/25/98.

Several op-ed articles by Lott about guns at the Texas State Rifle Association website.

Texas State Rifle Association