Philip J. Cook is the ITT/Sanford Professor of Public Policy at Duke University and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has been conducting research on firearms and violence for over 25 years, and has served as consultant to the Departments of Justice and the Treasury. He has written extensively on alcohol control, gambling, the economics of crime, and other topics, and is co-author of The Winner-Take-All Society (1995) and Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America (1989). Jens Ludwig is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Affiliated Expert of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. He conducts research on public policies related to crime and education, and has provided testimony on gun policy to state legislatures and other groups in California, Kansas, and Minnesota.
The first effort to make a comprehensive estimate of the price the nation pays for criminal shootings, gun accidents, and suicides committed with guns. --The New York Times<br> Offers not one but three significant new ideas about how to comprehend and reduce gun violence in America. --The Denver Post<br> Cook and Ludwig's approach is ambitious and pathbreaking. Theirs is the first attempt to document the many ways in which gun violence affects the United States, and they consider outcomes that are overlooked in most discussions. This important book will be a model for other research, and it should influence discussions of public policy.... Anyone with even a casual interest in the topic will profit from reading it. --New England Journal of Medicine<br> Marshalls new information and research to present a compelling picture of the true dimensions and extraordinary costs of gun violence in the United States. The book also debunks some of the key arguments of the NRA and its academic defenders....What makes Cook and Ludwig's book novel is their careful effort to calculate the total costs of gun violence. --The American Prospect<br> An innovative contribution to the growing literature on one of America's most intractable problems. --Publishers Weekly<br>