The 1997 Lott Survey That Various Critics Claim Didn't Happen

More about the Lott v. Levitt suit.

Lott says that the data was lost in a hard disk crash. Here's a very long list of emails from people who remember Lott telling him about the hard disk crash, or who lost data from research projects that they were doing with Lott at the time. If Lott fabricated the 1997 survey, and the hard disk crash was a later excuse to cover that up, it would require that he destroy a hard disk in 1997 so that others would remember it later.

The evidence that he did the 1997 survey is pretty persuasive. If Lott didn't do the 1997 survey--and the hard disk crash was the equivalent of Michael Bellesiles's flood that destroyed all his notes but that doesn't match the memories of others about when it happened and how severe it was--then not only is Lott lying, but so are quite a number of professors, many of whom do not share Lott's views about gun control.

The evidence that he didn't do it? None--just suspicions and doubts by Lott's political opponents who have constructed everything from the Mary Rosh sock puppetry.

Which is more likely? That Lott did a survey which he was able to replicate five years later with similar results, and he had a hard disk crash that caused the loss of the data? Or that Dr. Lott and a whole bunch of other professors, as well as at least one (and maybe two) survey respondents are all lying?