Because the techniques of social science are clumsy, the information generated is often nebulous and difficult to interpret. The issue involved in these studies is the specification problem, a chronic pitfall of time series studies. It is often difficult to know how to interpret findings when the direction taken by a dependent variable such as the homicide rate exhibits great sensitivity to the time period selected for examination. Another crucial point related to gun control laws is that the price sensitivity of firearms buyers will diminish as their motive for owning a firearm becomes more sinister and will increase as their motive for owning a firearm becomes more innocuous. Thus, the assumption that certain market interventions will reduce the homicide rate is rather naive. Those who recognize it as naive will consider the question of how firearms are distributed in society as much more important than the number of firearms and will reject as inherently counterproductive efforts to adopt policies that aim at reducing the number of arms in the hands of criminals by imposing regulatory costs in licit markets. Footnotes