"Demsas: Jens, you have a book coming out in April called Unforgiving
Places. What’s it about? What are you arguing?
Ludwig: The book basically makes two arguments. One argument is that
we’re despairing about the problem of gun violence because we’ve thought about it as just all being about gun control, and I think that’s not
true. I think the problem of gun violence in America is partly about
guns, and it’s partly about violent behavior. And if we can’t do
anything about the guns, we can at least try and do something about the
violent behavior. And the experiences of L.A. and New York over the last
30 years show us that there’s real progress that you can make there.
And then I think the other core argument of the book is that violent
behavior is not what we’ve thought. I think most people have thought of violent behavior in America as being about thoughtful, deliberate action
that leads you to focus on incentives, like bigger sticks or more
enticing carrots. And in fact, I think most shootings in America are
instead fast-thinking, reactive—it stems from arguments. And that leads
us away from relying exclusively on incentives and towards a very
different type of policy that we just haven’t been talking about or
thinking about."
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2025/02/the-origins-of-gun-violence/681556/
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