3 Approaches to Curbing Gun Violence Using Economics

Undoubtedly, there are more economic incentives to employ, and I don’t want to get mired in the politics of this gun ownership issue, but these are decent ideas.

What if anything can the government realistically do to decrease gun violence in America? We’ll surely hear a number of proposals this week, but here are three that attack the problem as an economist would: through incentives.

via 3 Approaches to Curbing Gun Violence — Using Economics | TIME.com.

Another approach is to make the manufacturers and vendors civilly liable for any damage caused by the product—sort of like making a bartender liable for serving an inebriated patron alcohol after s/he gets into an accident. This takes the argument out of the constitutional realm into the domain of economics. People in the US might have the right to bear arms, but the liability would increase the cost to these parties, and so  based on classical economic theory, supply would decline and prices would increase.

US Cars Worst-Made On The Road

What happens when the market gets mixed signals? When governments artificially stimulate demand, producers have no incentive to provide value. Forbes magazine offers this story.