Monday, June 10, 2013

Colorado Sheriffs Wrestle with New Gun Laws in Differing Ways - The Denver Post - Sunday June 9th

Sheriffs have been deciding if they are going to enforce the new gun laws. Multiple sheriffs have announced they disagree with the new universal background checks and have refused to complete them. People are also stating that these new laws are against the second and fourteenth amendment and therefore should not be enforced. More than 400 sheriffs from around the country have signed a Constitutional Sheriffs pledge declaring they won't enforce executive orders regarding guns that Obama signed into law in January.

I believe that Obama is using the wrong type of force by signing the new gun laws because there is a negative externality in the purchase of guns. There are multiple third party people that are being harmed by guns each day and therefore he should tax the purchase of guns and equipment to an appropriate amount. Since the American government cannot always protect it's people and their property, they should not make it more difficult for people to obtain guns by enforcing new laws. Government's policies and actions result from the purposeful actions of individuals and therefore I believe people have gone to the government and requested them to make these new gun laws, when the government should have taxed the purchase of guns and equipment.

1 comment:

Larry Eubanks said...

I suggest that liberty is a better normative perspective for this issue. Using a gun in committing a crime means using force to harm the person and/or property of another. This is the conceptual foundation for calling some action a crime.

Efficiency is really not about crime, although I admit many economists say otherwise. There is no source of market failure because the interactions you are discussing do not involve voluntary exchange, but instead are social interactions involving force.