Gun Control Needs Honest Debate, Not Neurohype

In an article making its way around the liberal blogosphere, Tim Phillips, the co-founder of the peace-and-reconciliation organization “Beyond Conflict” proposes the idea that “neuroscience can help settle the gun control debate.” Applying psychological theories to politics, and especially to the political ideas of conservatives has been a strategy of the left going back decades and has been particularly fashionable in recent years, especially with the controversial work of writers like Chris Mooney.As usual, the scientific basis for these ideas is thin, to say the least, and in most cases the appeal to some supposedly hard science like neurobiology is
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