TY - JOUR AU - Cook,Philip J. AU - Ludwig,Jens AU - Samaha,Adam TI - Gun Control after Heller: Litigating against Regulation JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 15431 PY - 2009 Y2 - October 2009 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15431 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15431.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Philip J. Cook Sanford School of Public Policy Duke University 215 Sanford Building Durham, NC 27708-0245 Tel: 919 613 7360 Fax: 919/681-8288 E-Mail: pcook@duke.edu Jens Ludwig University of Chicago 1155 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Tel: 773/834-0811 Fax: 773/834-1582 E-Mail: jludwig@uchicago.edu Adam Samaha University of Chicago Law School E-Mail: asamaha@uchicago.edu M3 - presented at "Regulation and Litigation Conference", September 11-12, 2009 AB - The “core right” established in D.C. vs. Heller (2008) is to keep an operable handgun in the home for self-defense purposes. If the Court extends this right to cover state and local jurisdictions, the result is likely to include the elimination of the most stringent existing regulations – such as Chicago’s handgun ban – and could also possibly ban regulations that place substantial restrictions or costs on handgun ownership. We find evidence in support of four conclusions: The effect of Heller may be to increase the prevalence of handgun ownership in jurisdictions that currently have restrictive laws; Given the best evidence on the consequences of increased prevalence of gun ownership, these jurisdictions will experience a greater burden of crime due to more lethal violence and an increased burglary rate; Nonetheless, a regime with greater scope for gun rights is not necessarily inferior – whether restrictive regulations would pass a cost benefit test may depend on whether we accept the Heller viewpoint that there is a legal entitlement to possess a handgun; In any event, the core right defined by Heller leaves room for some regulation that would reduce the negative externalities of gun ownership. ER -