AT LEAST as to the gun show study it reports, Kevin Lewis’s recent Uncommon Knowledge column (Ideas, Dec. 12) might be more aptly subtitled “Bloopers from the social sciences’’ instead of “insights.’’ Lewis cites a study on gun shows as providing evidence that may allay fears that these events give felons and the mentally disturbed an easy way to get guns. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This study measured the impact of gun show sales on violent deaths within a month of a show and within the immediate local area studied (California and Texas). It’s no surprise that it found no impact.
Law enforcement’s primary concern with gun shows is gun trafficking, facilitated by sales that don’t require background checks, to criminals located all over the place, not just within a 25-mile radius of gun shows. It would be as if a study addressed the question, “Does the installation of a cigarette vending machine in a community lead to increased cancer rates in the local area within one month of the installation?’’ The question is meaningless. So are the results.
An earlier, unpublished version of the study was thoroughly rebutted in the American Journal of Public Health and in The New York Times Economix blog. The authors of the AJPH critique bluntly stated, “The study should not be used as evidence in formulating gun policy.’’
Law enforcement has long recognized that no-check gun show sales arm criminals and threaten public safety. Social science that asks dumb questions and gets irrelevant answers should be described as such, or not reported at all.
Becca Knox
Director of research
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
Washington 
