Treat the Gun Industry Like Big Tobacco

Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:55 am by Bob Cesca

While I would’ve preferred the federal government to take swift action on an assault weapons ban and so forth, I like this idea from David Frum:

The second step that might be taken — again without the need for any congressional vote — is for the Senate to convene hearings into the practices of the gun industry analogous to those it convened into the tobacco industry in the 1990s.

This is clearly going to be a lengthy effort, but it’s worth remaining tenacious. And if we can borrow some lessons from the Republicans at the state level, too, I think we’ll eventually arrive at some serious hits against the gun culture.

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  • trgahan

    Though the information is already out there, the Senate bringing together all in data into a singular, high profile report would be pretty damning for the gun industry. Especially since the majority of guns used in crime in the western hemisphere start as legally purchased weapons in the United States. Gun manufacturers know the real money is indirect selling to criminal organizations and they need the US to maintain a wide open assault rifle market to keep the money flowing.

    Why do you think the pro-gun lobby is so against ANYTHING that would help make the ownership history of a gun more traceable (background checks, stricter registrations, etc.)?

    I’d also like to see numbers on how much of already meager wealth of rural poor whites is tied up in guns and ammo stockpiling.

  • GrafZeppelin127

    One good thing about my ill-starred experiment comparing gun prices with gun laws as “infringements” of the sacred, holy Right to Bear Arms, is that it made me realize something very important: Gun ownership, in and of itself, is nothing more or less than an ordinary property right. Guns, in and of themslves, are nothing more or less than a consumer product. Regardless of what you think you need guns for, or what you think the “right to bear arms” actually is or actually means, guns are a product, bought and sold on the open market like any other commodity.

    Maybe it was sloppy drafting or maybe it’s just bad interpretation, but somehow our beloved, sainted Founders managed to give us an uninfringeable “right” to own one, and only one, particular consumer product. It’s hard to fathom that this is the one they’d pick. Regardless, maybe it’s high time we started treating gun ownership as an ordinary property right, and guns as ordinary consumer products.