My thoughts on guns in general, and some ideas for a freer AND safer society

I recently read a series of essays by the Austrian economist, Bob Murphy. Murphy compiled them in a little booklet called "Chaos Theory", which offers solutions for how society could be kept safe without government regulations. The book mainly deals with these issues in regards to law and defense.

Bob Murphy

The part that I will discuss, and I found very interesting, was on how to deal with gun rights in a freer society.

Let me start off by saying, that I am all for the right to bear arms. I know that gun control has failed empirically, because bad people will get ahold of guns no matter what. It's the same reason street drugs are fairly common, as was alcohol during Prohibition. Prohibition on anything has NEVER made the object in question go away.

Police also can't, nor should be everywhere at once. A rancher in the southern part of Texas has to be able to defend himself if drug cartels sneak up over the border, and invade his property.

I do however, see the validity the other side makes:

"Unrestricted gun ownership will lead to more school shootings, and chaos"

How do we have the best of both worlds? Here's Murphy's general idea, with a few of my own additions.

How to make sure guns end up in the RIGHT hands:

The true libertarian philosophy, would mean anyone having a gun, of any kind. Since this is both dangerous and impractical, Bob has a solution.

Guns would be sold with insurance policies, similar to auto insurance. 

If I drive a car, I pay so much per month for insurance. The rate that I pay is determined by age, accident history, vehicle, etc. Guys 18-25 pay higher premiums, because their accident rates are much higher. The rate drops after 25, and then goes up again as the person ages, slows down,  and thus becomes more liable again.

If I want to buy a gun, I go to a shop and pick out what I want. They run a background check on me. (The government doesn't have to see it, and neither does the public. Some towns today publish gun ownership in the paper which I find scary.) If I'm deemed to be unsuitable for gun ownership due to mental illness or previous criminal activity, I will most likely be turned down.

Now, the gun I buy would have a monthly premium attached to it. This would be tied to whatever weapon it is, my age, background, etc: small handguns would have lower premiums, assault rifles would have much higher ones. Let's just say for the purpose of this exercise a 9 mm pistol would require me to pay $50 a month, whereas an AK47 would require a $200 per month fee. 

For those who have read my blog about alternatives to the FDA, a similar principle applies here. Since the people "approving" me (in this case for gun ownership, in the other one for food and drugs), have checked up on, and collect a fee from me, they are now on the hook legally if something happens.

If I use my gun in self defense: no harm, no foul. 

Let's take the worse case scenario:

Picture something similar to the end of the movie Scarface: A group of armed thugs break into my house, to assassinate me. If I fire my gun at them just for the sake of protecting my life, and defending my property. That is fine. It's self defense, and neither the gun dealer nor I am responsible for damage.

However...

If I wander out into the street, or any other public place, and fire away, I go to jail and the gun dealers and I are BOTH required to financially compensate the families of people killed, any people hurt, owners of any property that has been destroyed, etc.

So you see here, that this gets the dealers to make absolute certain that their merchandise is being sold to reputable people. It also gives me (and the dealers) incentive to make sure the gun has safety measures/and or is locked up, that way both I and the dealers don't get destroyed financially if the wrong person gets a hold of it. If say, my son (which I don't have, but just for the purpose of the exercise), goes mental and decides to shoot up a school, I and the dealers will both be legally liable. Incentive for me to make sure that it's secured.

Conclusion:
I'm not saying that this will solve all problems, but it will at least create a series of risks and rewards for both the gun dealers, and the arm bearers.

If anyone has any comments, I would be happy to hear them.

Thank you all for reading! More writings coming soon!

-STK