With the SCOTUS ruling today, I thought it would be good to revisit a Blogginghead between Megan McArdle and Mark Kleinman. Kleinman has proposed what I think is the best grand compromise position on firearms out there. They discuss in light of the DC hand gun case (from 2007).
Dingalink to the relevant section here.
The deal is a national carry permit and shell casing (that’s the deal for the pro-gun side) along with the closing of the firearm show private (non-background check) sale, firing a bullet from every gun made with serial number keeping a national database of everyone, and a training course to earn a permit like driver’s licenses (for the pro-control crowd).
The counterintuitive fact (to both the left and right) is that increasing gun ownership in the hands of law abiding citizens neither increases (contra left) nor decreases (contra right) crime.
Not like I imagine that ever happening, it would be too rational and rationality in this context is in short supply sadly on all sides. But anyway that is a legislative issue, not something for the Courts.
The ruling does leave this opening:
In a concluding paragraph to the his 64-page opinion, Scalia said the justices in the majority “are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country” and believe the Constitution “leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns.”
Or there is always the Family Guy Theory of the 2nd Amendment.
