Oh dear: John Lott, scholar-darling of the Gun Lobby, may be dirty. (Julian Sanchez of Cato broke the story.) I hope the Gun Lobby (statist-speak for all of us who don’t buy the victim-punishing dogma of Feinstein, Schumer, Brady et al.) will have the sense to disown him if necessary. On the other hand, of course, despite the ‘Mary Rosh’ affair I hope the sunlight will ultimately show his work to be clean.

The worst outcome of this matter – coming on the heels of the Bellesiles scandal – would be to discourage serious social scientists from looking at gun issues, leaving nothing but a war of slogans.