Evidence-based policy via simple graphs: gun control edition

Another of my blue team economist facebook friends (let's call him/her G, and G is only the latest of many in recent days) just posted a small-n univariate regression (in the form of a two-dimensional scatterplot with a line) on facebook that is intended to imply policy conclusions about gun control.

Rather than scream, or write a snarky comment on facebook, I will simply note that this economist, and all the others before him/her, would mercilessly mock anyone who offered a similar type of evidence in a policy domain related to their own research.

The same point applies in principal to any red team economist friends who get the urge to post similiarly non-causal univariate comparisons, though, at least based on my friends, gun control has this mesmerizing effect mainly on blue team economists.

My earlier post on gun control here.