Academic

DAN BAUM IN THE HUFFINGTON POST: After Tucson: Stricter Gun Laws Aren?t the Answer. Gun control ?

By Glenn Reynolds

DAN BAUM IN THE HUFFINGTON POST: After Tucson: Stricter Gun Laws Aren’t the Answer.

Gun control not only does no practical good, it actively causes harm. It may be hard to show that it saves lives, but it’s easy to demonstrate that we’ve sacrificed a generation of progress on things like health care, women’s rights, immigration reform, income fairness, and climate change because we keep messing with people’s guns. I am researching a book on Americans’ relationship to their guns, and keep meeting working-stiff gun guys — people whose wages haven’t risen since 1978 and should be natural Democrats — who won’t even listen to the blue team because they’re convinced Democrats want to take away their guns. Misguided? Maybe. But that’s democracy for you. It’s helpful to think of gun control as akin to marijuana prohibition — useless for almost everything except turning otherwise law-abiding people into criminals and fomenting cynicism and resentment. All the talk of a new large-magazine ban hits gun guys’ ears like liberals using this disaster to trim back gun rights a little. It reinforces the toxic narrative that the Democrats are the enemy of regular guys, which is the last thing we need right now.

Well, the toxic narrative is pretty much true, but this is a good piece.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on January 21, 2011 (boomark / email).