NCPA Commentaries by H. Sterling Burnett

H. Sterling Burnett is a Senior Fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis. While Burnett works on a number of issues, he specializes in issues involving environmental policy and gun policy.

  • Apr 22, 1999

    Earthday: Much to Celebrate, More to Do

    Despite numerous reports on the pace of urban growth, urban land remains a very small part of overall land use.


  • Apr 10, 1999

    Truly Smart Growth Involves Freedom

    Only about 5 percent of our land is developed, and three-quarters of the population lives on 3.5 percent of the land. But many people are frustrated with the traffic jams they associate with urban sprawl.


  • Apr 01, 1999

    Suing Government for Reducing Public Safety: A Lawsuit That's Time has Come

    Studies have shown that criminals fear armed citizens far more than police. Their fear is reasonable since nearly 3,000 criminals are lawfully killed each year by armed civilians - more than three times the number killed by the police.


  • Mar 08, 1999

    No Smoking Guns: Dispelling the Myths Surrounding Right to Carry Laws

    Since 1986 the number of states making it legal to carry concealed weapons has grown from nine to 31. Contrary to the claims of opponents to right-to-carry laws, liberalized concealed carry has not endangered public safety.
  • Jan 25, 1999

    Gun Lawsuits Make Us All Less Safe

    Not every city or state has seen the drop in crime that has accompanied the liberalization of concealed carry laws. States like Illinois forbid the concealed carrying of firearms; they have double the murder rate and a 20 percent higher rape rate than states with liberal concealed carry laws.
  • Jan 11, 1999

    Let States Manage the National Forests

    The United States Forest Service is a lightning rod for both fiscal conservatives and liberal environmentalists. Fiscal conservatives decry its money-losing programs. Environmentalists claim that its programs cause environmental harm. Both groups are correct, but years pass with no changes made to the failed policies.
  • Nov 22, 1998

    Throwing Cold Water on the Global Warming Treaty

    In December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, the Clinton/Gore administration negotiated a treaty that would require the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 40 percent - to 7 percent below their 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 - in an effort to avert catastrophic human-caused global warming.


  • Nov 02, 1998

    Gun Lawsuits: Bad Law and Bad Public Policy

    Attorney Elisa Barnes is suing gun manufacturers on behalf of two women who lost loved ones to criminal gun use.


  • Nov 01, 1998

    How to Fix the Failed Endangered Species Act

    The 33 new removals bring the total number of species removed from the 26-year-old act to 60. That's 60 of the 1,704 species listed, only a 3.5 percent removal rate.
  • Oct 15, 1998

    Is the Global Warming Treaty a Threat to National Security?

    What does a treaty proposed to prevent human-caused global warming have to do with the U.S. military? More than you think.