Citation

Kopel DB. J. Firearms Public Policy 1990; 3(1): 77-123.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Second Amendment Foundation)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Few public policy debates have been as dominated by emotion and misinformation as the one on gun control. Perhaps this debate is so highly charged because it involves such fundamental issues. The calls for more gun restrictions or for bans on some or all guns are calls for significant change in our social and constitutional systems.

Gun control is based on the faulty notion that ordinary American citizens are too clumsy and ill-tempered to be trusted with weapons. Only through the blatant abrogation of explicit constitutional rights is gun control even possible. It must be enforced with such violations of individual rights as intrusive search and seizure. It most severely victimizes those who most need weapons for self-defense, such as blacks and women.

The gun control debate poses the basic question: Who is more trustworthy, the government or the people?

Adapted by the author from an essay published in Cato Institute Policy Analysis, 1988 (number 109).