On the Economics and thus the Politics of Guns
This is a guest post by Grant Petty. Unlike cars, TV sets, washing machines, and cell phones, guns rarely wear out, break, get lost or become obsolete. A typical handgun can easily fire tens of thousands of rounds with no decline in usability or lethality. The vast majority of privately held guns, owned for self-protection, hunting, or occasional target practice never even come close to this kind of usage. Guns are thus one of those rarest of beasts: a non-perishable, non-consumable commodity. It follows that the vast majority of guns manufactured in at least the past 30 years or so are still in circulation and in working order, waiting patiently in someone’s drawer, cabinet, glove compartment, or jacket pocket to be pulled out and either used or passed on to someone else. In any manufacturing business, non-perishability of the product you sell poses a huge problem. In particular, if you want to stay profitable as a manufacturer and seller of new guns in a nearly saturated market, you basically have two possible strategies: 1) seduce existing gun owners into buying ever more guns and, especially, fancier and more expensive guns; 2) try to convince current non-owners that they just aren’t more »