156. A Solution to America’s Gun Problem

Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the political aisle.

• SOURCES:• Jens Ludwig (harris.uchicago.edu/directory/jens-ludwig), professor of economics at the University of Chicago and director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

• RESOURCES:• Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence (amzn.to/4jLpn4T), by Jens Ludwig (2025).
• "Scope Challenges to Social Impact (nber.org/papers/w28406)," by Monica Bhatt, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, and Anuj Shah (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021).
• "Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear (pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1718503115)," by Charles Branas, Eugenia South, Michelle Kondo, Bernadette Hohl, Philippe Bourgois, Douglas Wiebe, and John MacDonald (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018).
• "Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago (academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/132/1/1/…)," by Sara Heller, Anuj Shah, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Harold Pollack (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016).
• Thinking, Fast and Slow (amzn.to/3GC6u61), by Daniel Kahneman (2013).
• "Homicide and Suicide Rates Associated With Implementation of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/192946)," by Jens Ludwig and Philip Cook (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000).
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities (amzn.to/3EBNm7L), by Jane Jacobs (1992).
• The University of Chicago Crime Lab (crimelab.uchicago.edu).
• "Becoming a Man (crimelab.uchicago.edu/projects/becoming-a-man-…)" (University of Chicago Crime Lab).

• EXTRAS:• "Do the Police Have a Management Problem? (freakonomics.com/podcast/do-the-police-have-a-…)" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
• "From prison to Ph.D, this activist fights for peace in Chicago (pbs.org/newshour/nation/prison-ph-d-activist-f…)," by Kenya Downs (PBS News, 2016).

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