As the name sounds, Gun Control is a strategy through which regulation of gun selling
and their usage are provided by the law as well as who to use them (Lott 210). However, in the
paper we are going to discuss the economic theory of the gun control, its relationship between
the current and future law enforcement as well as articulating the possible policy resolutions for
the same issue of gun control.
An Economic Analysis of Gun Control
The connection concerning means and ends, the behavior of forward-looking, opportunity cost,
substitution usage and the primary purpose of moral-hazards, are majorly the main concepts
which have been taught in Economics 101. According to Lott (210), these concepts usually assist
in our understanding the world around us and even have the major applicability in areas beyond
classrooms. However, most students are unable to apply these concepts in policies that are very
serious on various issues. Most of the students are blinded by the reactions of knee-jack and
panic, thereby reducing issues which are very serious to bumper-sticker slogans decreasing the
applicability of economic concepts Lott (210). Therefore, one of such big issue is the gun control
through which analysis of economic can provide a crucial perception.
Gun control is an issue which has broadly raised a public debate following the incidences
such as high school shooting of Columbine in the year 1999. This led to about fifteen victims of
the shooting, the Red Lake high school shooting in the year 2005, which comprised ten victims
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and the thirty-three victims who were shot at Virginia Tech, in the year 2007 (Spitzer 231-237).
Moreover, gun-control advocates for the strict restriction and on the other hand the owners of the
guns start advocating for the second amendment to the constitution. Similarly, the same
arguments are repeated, but nobody is intended to apply the concept of Economic over the issue.
The Means and Ends
Recognizing all these cases, we can say that those who aim to kill have ends or rather
things which they aspire to achieve (Spitzer 231-237). Therefore, their ends are specifically to
kill people. Consequently, they start getting the means before they accomplish their ends. Buying
guns, bullets, chains, locks, and flak-jackets, are some of their means through which they use to
accomplish their purposes. Additionally, they always start drawing early their strategies.
Therefore, it implies that the killers begin to involve themselves in the progressive behavior
(Spitzer 231-237).
After all these events, the gun control supporters criticize the function of the gun by
saying that could the guns not owned by the shooters the victims could not have been shot to
death. Undoubtedly, it is very true, however, it is a cry which is far away from the claim that
without guns, the victims could not have been killed (Spitzer 231-237). Therefore, these well-
arranged gun control supporters do not have the common sense, which is the economic idea of
substitution. Substitutes are alternatives means of achieving the same end. On a chilly morning,
you can take a coffee or take a hot tea, while towards your workplace you can drive or use a
public means of transportation, and during entertainment, you can watch a TV or go out to watch
movies. It means therefore that if the government bans coffee, then you can still take a hot tea in
the morning. If public means of transport are banned, you can still get to your workplace.
Therefore, all these cases tell us that eliminating a single event does not eliminate the end.
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This scenario relates to gun control and the killing of people massively. Therefore, those
who killed at the Columbine and the Virginia Tech had organized their accomplishments in
advance, getting the required properties and finding out wherever, once and how to carry out
their activities (Johnson 241). Thus, had another means of killing been disclosed to them, they
could have found the substitutes. It merely means had they not acquired guns to kill; they could
have achieved their ends of killing. Therefore, substitutes do not just occur in goods and chattels
nevertheless also in management policies. For instance, Morton Grove approved a handgun
prohibition in the year 1981. Consequently, the response that came as a result in the year 1982,
the city council of Kennesaw, Georgia, passed an order demanding every household to have a
minimum of one gun at home (Johnson 242).
The city, therefore, replaced the requirements, that is, the rule of having a firearm and the
policy which does not require a gun. As a result, the crime rate for the Kennesaw has reduced
compared to the law-breaking rate of the fellow citizen who does not have the comparable
policy. Therefore, given that the crime rate in Kennesaw being reduced, it thus implies that
criminals also recognize the major purpose of substitution (Johnson 242).
Finally, the controversial issue about controlling our guns is or is not something which is
good to do. However, from my perception, having a better control of firearms is the best thing
which we can do. Though I acknowledge that taking away these guns will not mark the end of
the situation in which we are under, I, therefore, insist that introducing a better way of gun
control can help to reduce the number of shootings that are taking place.
The relationship between gun control in the existing and the future law enforcement
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Regarding the law of guns, President Obama and his critics agreed that there is no enough
law enforcement to regulate gun control which exists in the books (Barthelemy 413-429).
President Obama expressed his frustration at the Guns in America, the forum hosted by the CNN
on the night of Thursday pointing at his opponents advising him to enforce the current laws,
while the same opponents are trying to challenge them (Barthelemy 413-429). Therefore, from
the current trend of rules, we can see that the relationship between the existing and the future law
enforcement of gun control is unclear. The existing laws governing gun control are not being put
in practice, therefore implying that the same scenario will be applied in future. Thus, future
enforcement of laws regarding gun control is unpredictable resulting in the unclear relationship
between the existing and future law enforcement.
According to Obama, some of his new proposals he had designed were to get at the
problem of the origin and the difficulties of using the current law that exists such as the agents of
ATF and providing clarification on the statutes to enable them more applicable (Barthelemy 413-
429). On the same note, the judicial department said that president is calling for more resources
and thus the agency will use the policy of ‘smart on crime.'
However, various policies have been underline regarding gun control. According to the
survey research center, majorities in not less than ten Democrats and Republicans advocates
blocking those people who are mentally handicapped and individuals in Federal from buying or
accessing guns (Haider-Markel 520-543). Additionally, many people also prefer background
checks for those who are privately and gun show sales of guns. Furthermore, the thin boundary
among republicans has most of the people from both parties who support an assault weapon
interdict and then generate a new database which is used to track the sales of guns. Additionally,
polls also indicate that when a general question is asked if strict gun laws can be created, a large
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number of Republicans go against the direction while Democrats advocate it. Despite large
shooting over the last years, congress has not passed the legislations over the recent gun control.
According to Pew’s findings, Democrats perceive gun violence as a big problem (Haider-Markel
529-540).
However, the most thing which we should avoid is creating laws which cannot help to
stop these things from happening. Questions over the high rate of increase in the availability of
guns where there is concealed carry in most of the places and allowing teachers also to access
them and even carry them to school- got a lot of supports from Republicans but less from
Democrats. This survey was conducted in the year 2017 amongst 3930 grown-ups, having a
margin of standard error being plus or minus 2.5 percent for the whole sample, which is larger
for the small groups such as leaned Republican and leaned Democrats. Therefore, I can conclude
by saying that with the above few policies that have been highlighted, gun control can be done
much better which can reduce the number of daily victims of shoots (Haider-Markel 520-543).
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Works cited
Barthelemy, Juan J., et al. "Law enforcement perceptions of their relationship with the
community: Law enforcement surveys and community focus groups." Journal of Human
Behavior in the Social Environment 26.3-4 (2016): 413-429.
Haider-Markel, Donald P., and Mark R. Joslyn. "Gun policy, opinion, tragedy, and blame
attribution: The conditional influence of issue frames." The Journal of Politics 63.2
(2001): 520-543.
Johnson, Cheri. Law Enforcement. Origins: Whodunnit, 2017.
Lott, John R. More guns, less crime: Understanding crime and gun control laws. University of
Chicago Press, 2013.
Spitzer, Robert J. Politics of gun control. Routledge, 2015.