Would More Gun Control Lead to More Crime? A Debate

09/24/18 • 81 min

Does defensive gun use stop crime? Would more gun control save lives? Those were the topics of a public debate recently hosted by the Soho Forum, featuring Gary Kleck, a criminologist from Florida State University, and Paul Helmke, the former president and CEO of the Brady Center/Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence as well as the former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Kleck argued that there are at least four times as many defensive gun uses by potential victims as there are by criminals, and that new gun controls would reduce the defensive uses far more than the criminal ones. Helmke questioned Kleck's take on the data.

The debate was held on September 13, 2018, at the SubCulture Theater in Manhattan's East Village. Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein moderated. Comedian Dave Smith, host of the podcast Part of the Problem, was the opening act.

The full resolution read: While laws that prohibit gun ownership would reduce crimes perpetrated by criminals, that benefit would be more than offset by the foregone opportunities for defensive gun use by victims of crime.

It was an Oxford-style debate in which the audience votes on the resolution at the beginning and end of the event, and the side that gains the most ground is victorious. Kleck, arguing the affirmative, prevailed by convincing about six percent of audience members to change their minds.

All Soho Forums are turned into Reason videos and podcasts. Go here for a full archive.

Kleck's research has focused on the impact of firearms and gun control on violence, deterrence, and crime control. He is the author of Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America, which won the 1993 Michael J. Hindelang Award of the American Society of Criminology. He also wrote Targeting Guns (1997) and, with Don B. Kates, Jr., The Great American Gun Debate (1997) and Armed (2001), and, with Brion Sever, Punishment and Crime (2017).

Helmke is a professor of practice at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and he is the founding director of the Civic Leaders Living-Learning Center in Bloomington, IN.

Edited by Todd Krainin.

"Modum" by Kai Engle is licensed under a CC-BY creative commons license.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Like us on Facebook.

Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes.

The post Would More Gun Control Lead to More Crime? A Debate appeared first on Reason.com.

All Soho Forums are turned into Reason videos and podcasts. Go here for a full archive.

Helmke is a professor of practice at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and he is the founding director of the Civic Leaders Living-Learning Center in Bloomington, IN.

Edited by Todd Krainin.

"Modum" by Kai Engle is licensed under a CC-BY creative commons license.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Like us on Facebook.

Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes.

The post Would More Gun Control Lead to More Crime? A Debate appeared first on Reason.com.

Previous Episode

Can the Free Market End Global Poverty? Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz vs. NYU's William Easterly

There has been a staggering reduction in global poverty over the last four decades. In China, sustained rates of economic growth have lifted 800 million people out of extreme poverty. Ethiopia, a country once synonymous with famine, has grown faster than China while nearly halving its poverty rate over the last 15 years. Across the planet, developing countries large and small, from India to Ghana, have seen astonishing successes in alleviating poverty, exceeding even the most optimistic economic forecasts.

How did this extraordinary shift happen? Do poor countries need more markets, or more government?

Two of the world's best-known development economists, Joseph Stiglitz and William Easterly, met on August 27, 2018, at the SubCulture Theater in Manhattan's East Village to debate these questions. The event was sponsored by the Soho Forum, a monthly debate series partnered with Reason. Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein moderated.

Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and former chief economist of the World Bank, is a professor at Columbia University. He credits thoughtful and aggressive government intervention for the rising fortunes of China and Ethiopia. In his view, markets are a tool to stimulate economic growth—but not always the most effetive one. "You always are going to have a mixture of governments and markets," he says. "And the only success is going to be where you get the right mixture."

Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He argues that China only achieved stellar growth rates after the Communist Party started to recede from economic life and created a space for markets to thrive. Likewise, Ethiopia prospered only after the disintegration of a repressive Communist regime, known as the Derg, paved the way for widespread privatization of industry and commerce.

Produced by Todd Krainin.

Visit the archive of past Soho Forum events.

To listen to an audio podcast version of the Soho Forum, subscribe to the Reason Podcast at iTunes.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Like us on Facebook.

The post Can the Free Market End Global Poverty? Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz vs. NYU's William Easterly appeared first on Reason.com.

Next Episode

Socialism vs. Capitalism: Jacobin's Bhaskar Sunkara and Economist Gene Epstein Debate

Is socialism more effective than capitalism in bringing freedom to the masses?

That was the resolution at a recent public debated hosted by the Soho Forum on October 15, 2018. It featured Bhaskar Sunkara, the founding editor and publisher of Jacobin magazine, and Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum's director and former economics and books editor of Barron's. Naomi Brockwell moderated.

It was an Oxford-style debate in which the audience votes on the resolution at the beginning and end of the event, and the side that gains the most ground is victorious. Epstein, arguing the negative, prevailed by convincing about 11 percent of audience members to change their minds.

Sunkara is also the author of the forthcoming The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality, which will be published by Basic Books in 2019.

Comedian Dave Smith, host of the podcast Part of the Problem, opened the program.

The Soho Forum, which is partnered with the Reason Foundation, is a monthly debate series at the SubCulture Theater in Manhattan's East Village. At the next debate, which will be held on November 14, 2018, Columbia professor John McWhorter will debate NYU's Nikhil Pal Singh on whether "the message of anti-racism has become as harmful a force in American life as racism itself." Buy tickets here.

Music: "January" by Kai Engle is licensed under a CC-BY creative commons license.

All Soho Forums are turned into Reason videos and podcasts. Go here for a full archive.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Like us on Facebook.

Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes.

The post Socialism vs. Capitalism: <em>Jacobin's</em> Bhaskar Sunkara and Economist Gene Epstein Debate appeared first on Reason.com.