science_chick

Joe Execellent point, and we actually did that in our Preventive Medicine article (in fact that rationale we gave was almost word for word what you have said here :)). So our outcomes there were gun related homicides, as well as all homicides, and if criminals switched to other means, gun related homicides would go down but total homicides would not. However, our results indicated that there isn't much substitution....gun related homicides go down, non gun does not go up. Thank you for the comment!

As an econometrics professor myself, I know all about being ecstatic when students *get* stuff really well :) Glad you think this is interesting. Please do share on Facebook and twitter if you think your friends might be interested.