Category: The Media

This has to win a creativity award for the most utterly ridiculous gun control proposal I’ve ever seen in my life:

We propose a new way to prod gun makers to reduce gun deaths, one that would be unlikely to put them out of business or to prevent law-abiding citizens from obtaining guns. By using a strategy known as “performance-based regulation,” we would deputize private actors — the gun makers — to deal with the negative effects of their products in ways that promote the public good.

It then goes on to speak of a performance based system where gun makers would be rewarded for drops in gun violence, and penalized for increases in gun violence.  This presumes that there’s anything manufacturers can do about the fact that their products make their way onto black markets.  But they have an idea for that too:

How would gun companies go about reducing gun deaths? The main thing to emphasize is that this approach relies on the nimbleness, innovation and experimentation that come from private competition — rather than on the heavy-handed power of governmental regulation. Gun makers might decide to add trigger locks to their guns, or to work only with dealers who meet certain standards of responsibility. They might withdraw their semiautomatic weapons from the consumer market, or even work hand in hand with local officials to fight gangs and increase youth employment opportunities. Surely they will think up new strategies once they have a legal obligation and financial incentive to take responsibility for the harm their products cause.

Ah yes, the old canards.  Since they admit that Heller might mean they can’t just flat out ban these guns, now they need to offer incentives for no one to make them.  Because a revolver is so measurably less deadly than a semi-auto pistol?  Does it even matter if the “gun death” being spoken of is a suicide?  How does supplying trigger locks work unless someone uses them?  If this is what Heller has reduced our oppoents to, perhaps Heller is a bigger victory than I had imagined.

UPDATE: As a reader points out, this is pretty much the same type of business as the lawsuits the PLCAA was meant to put a stop to.  I mean, would we hold Ford accountable for drunk driving rates, or Zippo accountable for reducing the incidence of arson?  Drug makers for reducing drug suicides?

If you open carry in Wisconsin, and have been harassed as a result of it, Milwaukee magazine is looking to do a story on this.  I would be very careful talking to the press.  In fact, this is something where state leaders in the movement really need to step up and make sure the media is getting the right message, and coaching people on how to deal with them.  Treating the media like friends of gun owners can turn into an embarassing mistake very quickly.

Because what they think apparently matters.  At least the WaPo seems to think so.