Comments on: Gun Control: An Economic Analysis

By: Wait a second

Wait a second — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:49:36 +0000

I do not refute the argument that there are substitutes in economics and wouldbe killers, without access to firearms, would simply find other means to achieve their goals. However, in economics we also talk about PERFECT SUBSTITUTES, which are good(s) that are indistinguishable in use to the good they are substituting. Machetes, poisons, knifes, etc. are not perfect substitutes for firearms. So, it seems safe to say that, without guns, the wouldbe killers would have more difficulty in achieving their ends.
I am in complete agreement with the second amendment and believe it is a fundamental right to bear arms. This is just some food for thought because the article ignores perfect substitutes.

By: Joe Schmoe

Joe Schmoe — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:01:23 +0000

In short: criminals don’t care too much about laws, rules, or regulations; that’s why they’re criminals.

The real deterrent is the jails, and cops with guns.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:15:56 +0000

The situation in the UK is a good example of substitution in action.

Legislation making the cost of carrying illegal firearms failed as criminals turned to knives, more recent legislation after a series of unpleasant knife attacks and increasing comon knife possession has made this riskier.

What seems to be replacing these two activities is a marked increase in the number of people (generally unsavoury looking people) either ‘practising’ their putting as a gold club makes an effective weapon or in possession of a large status symbol dog.

We have removed safe firearms from the hands of responsible people and replaced them with badly trained vicious dogs in the hands of thugs.

This is supposed to to be a good thing.

By: Craig B.

Craig B. — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:38:22 +0000

See what Gun Controller California and a lying California attorney, Gun Controller Steven T. Schoonover, and flip flopper James K. Olson did here to a Nevada citizen’s right to have a gun to protect herself after James K. Olson had broken into this Nevada citizen’s home! Gun Controllers Among Us, Marin County California Courts

Most liberal Gun Controller Marin County California has repeatedly thumbed their nose at the US Constitution, then imposed their illegal Gun Controller actions onto a Nevada citizen. What’s next?

Lying California attorney, Steven T. Schoonover had the Nevada citizen served at 7:30 Thursday evening in Nevada for a 9 am the following Monday court in California and the California incompetent Gun Controller judge allowed that 1 day notice although illegal as have to be served more than 10 days before a hearing and furthermore it was to a Nevada citizen!

Three strikes you’re out lying California attorney, Gun Controller Steven T. Schoonover

http://reno.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3749

By: Joseph R Warren

Joseph R Warren — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:06:04 +0000

Make that, “No argument…is a logical…”

By: Joseph R Warren

Joseph R Warren — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:11:23 +0000

While at first glance this writer appears to shed an interesting and divergent view on the subject, his logic is truncated and easily disassembled by those who oppose gun ownership. Firearms are immediately lethal beyond the scope of any other weapon of their scale. No argument using a Sling Blade in comparison to the force and immediate killing capability of nearly all firearms being sold in America today (some of which I own) is an illogical basis for defeating the anti-gun forces: it’s transparent and insipid. It’s also the wrong argument.

The reality is that we have dumbed down our intellect to the point where we argue gun control predicated on the conclusion that we are an evolved species. Nearly everyone on both sides of the argument seems to make this erroneous supposition: We are one hundred percent beyond our inherent inclinations to violence of just fifty, one hundred, or for thousands of years past. We are not. No set of laws or contrivance of society regardless of how well intentioned can change the fact that we are primarily animals who sometimes engage in combative and impulsive violent behaviors, notwithstanding the trappings of technology around us with which we adorn ourselves.

It’s an odd thinking that permits us on one hand to congratulate Darwin for giving us insight into the process of Natural Selection, yet does everything possible to retard its means and end.

By: sconzey

sconzey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:08:49 +0000

Anecdotally, this same effect is apparent in the UK as well. Since a horrific school shooting at Dunblane, we’ve not been allowed to own handguns or repeating rifles. Recently it’s become harder to get a firearms certificate, and the hoops that must be leapt through to hold a rifle legally become ever more arduous.

Exemplifying the information asymmetry, levels of gun crime have *risen* since then. Exemplifying substitution, levels of violent crime overall have risen too.

By: Judy-Ann Whalen

Judy-Ann Whalen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:34:36 +0000

Interesting piece. For those of us who have been around for a while, if honest, we have seen a drastic change in how people treat each other. When various types of behavior became acceptable because we were no longer to be judgemental, we began giving up our freedoms so those whom we are not permitted to judge can have their freedoms, i.e., because I cannot judge the shooter (he/she may have had a poor upbringing), I should forfeit my right to carry a weapon.

It is a statement of where our country is headed. Thank you for this article. It gives me hope for the next generation.

By: Rhett Cook

Rhett Cook — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:00:01 +0000

Bill-
I realize that J’s comment is concerning the employer prohibiting law abiding employees from keeping a firearm in a locked vehicle. Such a policy is in the same spirit as gun free zones at schools. The employer fails to understand that we live in a dangerous world. A jobsite is a place where quite a few people are vulnerable to an armed criminal/angry ex-employee. It’s intelligent to have armed employees. I carry my pistol five days a week at work. Are you suggesting that we need to imitate silly public school policies and have gun free zones at work?

By: Bill Starr

Bill Starr — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Unfortunately J\’s comment applies to commuting to work if the employer prohibits the law abiding employees from keeping a firearm in the locked vehicle.