Lie-in gun control demonstration at the White House, February 19, 2018 (bakdc / Shutterstock.com).How Populist Progressives Ignore the Unseen
What separates a wise political economist or politician from a foolish one is the ability to consider the unseen consequences of their policies.
Senator Kamala Harris (D-Ca.) speaking at her 2020 presidential campaign announcement rally in Oakland, California on January 27, 2019 (Image: InFootage / Shutterstock.com).An Empirical Liberty Framework for Debating Gun Control
Stephanie Frey / Shutterstock.comGun Rights as a Minimaxing Policy Preference
While support for gun control typically increases after mass shootings, after time, as CNN noted recently, that increase reverts back to the general trend.
Bret Stephens’ Fetishism for Gun Control
Right after the Las Vegas massacre, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens demanded that the Second Amendment be repealed.
What Gun Control and Refugee Admissions Policies Have in Common
What to do with populations in which we can identify threats ex ante only probabilistically? This is a central issue in the U.S. debate over gun rights and gun control, and, in many respects, this debate parallels the argument over refugee admissions policy.
A Brief History of Socialist Support for Gun Rights
Amidst the gun debate, we shouldn't forget that socialists feared that a weaponless working class would usher in a dictatorship by capitalists.
Flags of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are carried through the crowd during the New York City Women's March, January 20, 2018 (Erin Alexis Randolph/Shutterstock.com)Politics in a Post-Modern Republic
What is the cause of our polarized politics? Some blame one party or the other, and that is certainly plausible. But I wonder if the problem goes deeper. Our two parties are fighting for the future. We are polarized because we disagree about what it would mean to make America better. Beyond that, the arguments are so extreme because in our post-modern age we cannot agree about what it means to be reasonable.
Here’s a Horse-Trade for You
Last week’s horrible tragedy at Umpqua Community College in Oregon put us back into a repetitive cycle in partisan discourse: A madman commits a massacre. Advocates for greater controls on firearm ownership use their outrage at the loss of life to point fingers at Americans’ right to own guns, and argue for more gun control. Gun-rights advocates mourn the loss of life, accuse their opponents of exploiting the deaths of the victims, and argue that greater restrictions short of outright bans would not prevent future tragedies and would endanger the basic rights of the vast majority of gun owners to protect themselves.
Newtown Suit Proceeds under False Pretences
Some of the families who survived the horror of the Newtown shooting are suing Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle that was used by the deranged gunman who murdered 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The complaint actually reads more like an attempt at healing than a serious legal claim. To that extent, I am sympathetic. But the strictly legal issues and theory of recovery to be gleaned from it deserve comment.
