Today the Cato Institute published my monograph “The Costs and Consequences of Gun Control.”
The policy analysis examines several gun control proposals which have
been promoted by the Obama administration and the gun control lobby:
bans on so-called assault weapons; bans on standard magazines;
confiscation; and the prohibition of all private sales, loans and
returns, except when processed by a gun store. After explaining why each
of these proposals is likely to do little good and much harm, the paper
discusses realistic alternatives which really can save lives. The most
important of these is providing a much broader safety net for people
seeking help for severe mental illness. In addition, respecting the
right to bear arms has been demonstrated to be successful in thwarting
would-be mass murderers.
Prohibiting certain guns or magazines will be futile without confiscation of such arms currently owned by citizens; so said a 2013 memo by Greg Ridgeway,
acting director of the National Institute of Justice (the research arm
of the Justice Department). Likewise, the NIJ memo explained that
“universal” background checks are useless without comprehensive
registration of all guns and all gun owners. Yet Americans have
historically resisted gun registration, precisely because of concerns
about confiscation. These concerns are not unfounded; registration lists
have been used to enforce confiscation in New York City, in Australia
and in Great Britain. In Australia, the confiscation was euphemistically
called a “buy back,” although it was in fact involuntary confiscation,
with only partial compensation paid for the confiscated items.
Read more @ The Volokh Conspiracy here
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