I ran across another research paper regarding gun control. I was expecting the usual biased crap, but…
That title.
Mathematics ties media coverage of gun control to upticks in gun purchases
Through the analysis of time series from 1999 to 2017, we identify a correlation between the occurrence of a mass shooting and the rate of growth in firearm acquisition. More importantly, a transfer entropy analysis pinpoints media coverage on firearm control policies as a potential causal link in a Wiener–Granger sense that establishes this correlation. Our results demonstrate that media coverage may increase public worry about more stringent firearm control and partially drive increases in firearm prevalence.
The actual paper is paywalled. The available abstract… makes sense, and confirms what everyone has known empirically for years: Threats to restrict rights drive people to exercise them while they can. Maurizio Porfiri et al quantified it.
The study itself doesn’t use garbage “synthetic controls” or inappropriate “cross-sectional analysis.” It’s straight temporal analysis of real data looking for cause and effect. I had to see who Porfiri is; he’s not your usual social “science” type.
He certainly isn’t. He’s an engineer; mechanical, not social. You know, the guys who comprehend that you have to get facts right, or the airplane won’t fly.
In fact, when I looked at some of his other paper titles, I realized I’d heard of his work. He’s done some really neat stuff with robotic fish. That work.
Like his seemingly realistic analysis of how gun control threats drive sales.
If academia really wants to understand “gun violence” and how that relates to the Second Amendment, they need to dump the social scientists (and social justice weasels), and hire more reality-based engineers.
[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]
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