The Washington Post has a story about Mary Rosh. Lott now claims that this review of More Guns, Less Crime was written by his 13 year-old son with some help from his wife.
"They told me they had done it. They showed it to me. I wasn't going to tell them not to do it. Should I have?"
One of Mary Rosh's reviews (the one of Caesar 3) reads like it was written by a child, the review of More Guns, Less Crime does not. It also seems unlikely that a 13 year-old would have loaned out his copy dozens of times.
Now, compare Rosh's review:
This is by far the largest most comprehensive study on crime, let alone on gun control. Professor Lott examines crime rates as well as accidental gun deaths and suicides for all 3,056 counties in the United States by year for 18 years. By comparison, the previous largest study on gun control examined 170 cities within one single year 1980.
with Lott on "Uncommon Knowledge":
The book is the largest study by far that's ever been done on crime, let alone on guns. The largest previous study looked at 170 cities within one year, 1980. My research looks at all 3000 plus counties in the United States for crime rates, accidental gun deaths, and suicides by year for eighteen years.
It is possible that Lott's son created the review by plagiarizing from Lott's writings and posting it with Lott's approval, but even if this is true, I don't think that it differs in any meaningful way from Lott writing the review.
More like this
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Last year an anonymous person from the American Enterprise Institute
repeatedly tried and failed to remove all
criticism of Lott from his
wikipedia page. He
At the The High Road there was some discussion of the cherry picked Lott article I discussed here. One poster, "agricola", criticized Lott, linking to my blog.
On July 12 The Columbus Dispatch published a letter from Paul van Doorn replying to an earlier letter from David Mayer that I commented on. Here is an extract (hyperlinks added by me):