Transcript of debate for “Intelligence Squared U.S.” on the question: Do Guns Reduce Crime?

You can read the transcript here. I think that the debate went well. When the audience from NYC was asked at the beginning of the debate if they thought that more guns meant less crime the ratio was 13 percent in favor, 60 percent against. After the debate it was 27 percent in favor, 64 percent against. Thus we technically won the debate because we got more people to switch to our side than the reverse.

Here is one of the bizarre discussions during the debate. This is the way that John Donohue had described reknowned criminologist James Q. Wilson.

The lone dissenter was someone who was not an econometrician, who admitted in his dissent that he wished he knew more econometrics, and who had previously testified as an expert witness on behalf of the [INAUDIBLE] NRA.

My response was this:

But the point is, what James Q. Wilson, who’s this hack that you were referring to, and I think a lot of people would regard James Q. Wilson as probably the top criminologist in the country, he was the person who was dissenting on this.