There I was, flipping through the online schedule of the Joint Statistical Meetings in Atlanta this August to see what sessions would be worth attending, and there’s John Lott’s name staring back at me, in the midst of a session on methods of teaching stats.
Not sure why they dumped him in there, but I’ll definitely have to take in that talk. And do a bit of research first, so I can ask good questions at the end of the session.
And just who is John Lott?
John Lott is the author of the recent controversial book More Guns, Less Crime. His extremely comprehensive study is an attempt to prove that allowing persons to carry concealed handguns can positively correlated with a reduction in violent crime. He’s an economist by training and is the John M. Olin Visiting Law and Economics at the University of Law Chicago. He currently teaches courses in criminal deterrence and law and economics. His statistical methods in the publication linked above have come under an intense attack by the gun-control movement. Here’s a http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html"]press interview released by the University of Chicago.
RTFirefly is a statistician by training and vocation. He’s also very vocal on the gun-control front, or at least has been in the past, so you can see why he’s interested in hearing Lott speak.
Gosh, so am I, but I know I won’t be able to get to the JSM conference in Atlanta. I’ll have to wait for a report from RT. I’d be REAL interested in hearing about his design. I always figured that carrying a non-concealed weapon would be a better deterrent. 
I’d kind of like to see him, as well. IRL, so to speak.
He’s espoused some other controversial positions as well, and other than his positive take on gun control, I really haven’t much else in agreement with the man’s published works.
So I’d like to take his gestalt, if you will. To see if I’m backing a loon.
Well, not exactly. But thanks anyway, Unc.
I’m a mathematician, but though my professional title is ‘mathematical statistician’, I’m not really a statistician by training - I’ve got about twelve undergrad and graduate hours of prob/stat courses above the level of freshman stats, which I’ve taught numerous times.
Chances are that that background will more than suffice for tackling More Guns, Less Crime - but if he gets into stratified sampling or some such, I’d be over my head real fast. I’m not expecting it, though, and if he does, I’ve got a wife who does know that stuff that I can call on for help.
By no means required reading, the Wiley Classics Library has published Leslie Kish’s Survey Sampling in paperback. (ISBN 0-471-48900-X; ISBN 0-471-10949-5 [Classics Edition]) It is “designed to be a simple book on sampling methods.” It may be a reasonable skim. I have a copy that you are more than welcome to borrow. In that we live near each other we can arrainge a meet if you wish.