Do Guns Really Make Us Safer?

WAMU 88.5

Published October 9, 2017 at 10:06 AM EDT

A model walks the runway during the NRA Concealed Carry Fashion Show on Friday, August 25, 2017 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

After the mass shooting in Las Vegas, stocks were hot. Shares in some gun companies jumped, and bump stocks — which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire faster — are selling more briskly at some gun shops.

But do guns, or ways to fire them faster, make us safer? Is “a good guy with a gun” likely to stop a “bad guy with a gun?”

Research suggesting that this might be the case has been roundly criticized by academics, but these numbers don’t seem to deter many shoppers… or lawmakers.

So, if it came down to it, how likely is a good, armed citizen to stop a shooter?

GUESTS

John Donohue, Professor, Stanford Law School

Kris Brown, Co-president, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

John Lott, President, Crime Prevention Research Center

Porochista Khakpour, Writer-in-residence, Northwestern University

Suzanna Hupp, Author, “From Luby’s to the Legislature: One Women’s Fight Against Gun Control”

For more, visit http://the1a.org.