Categories
Blog

Supply Side Gun Control

 

There’s no lack of racial dimensions to the debate about guns. For instance, all it took was members of the Black Panther Party showing up with guns on the steps of the State Capitol for California to adopt tougher gun laws, and that’s not the only time images of angry Black people with guns has spurred reform on both sides of the debate.

There’s also a gender dimension to gun-related violence. As Meghan Murphy pointed out on Alternet, women are almost never mass murderers and are under-represented among murderers in general. Obviously our culture of violence affects people … Read more “Supply Side Gun Control”

Categories
Blog

The Case for Gun Control

The July 20th theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado and last Sunday’s shooting at a Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin has put the issue of gun control back in the news. The fact that the shooters in both cases used legally purchased guns strongly suggests it would be a good idea to change gun laws. But pro-gun activists argue that the problem is not guns but murderous people.

On the surface, it makes sense. Guns are only tools. If someone wants to kill someone, there are lots of other ways. If we could only mitigate the motivation to kill, we … Read more “The Case for Gun Control”