Violence without Guns

campusreportonline.net ^ | June 14, 2007 | Malcolm Kline

[Kaput]

Violence without Guns by: Malcolm A. Kline, June 14, 2007

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre and the call for more gun control and firearm-free zones, at least one economist is offering an independent analysis that is worth considering. “Economists understand that when government restricts one market, consumers merely move to another market, and when government tries to foreclose one means, individuals will simply shift into other means to achieve the same ends,” Scott Kjar writes in the Free Market newsletter. “However horrendous we might find the mass shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech and other places, the fact is that when disaffected people start planning mayhem, the lack of a gun will not stop them.”

“The 1927 Bath Township School bombing in which 45 people were killed by a school board member, shows that guns are neither necessary nor sufficient for the commission of mass murder at schools.” The Free Market is published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama.

At Virginia Tech, “Many people argue that if the shooter did not have guns and bullets, he would not have been able to shoot all of those people,” Dr. Kjar writes. “This is surely correct.”

“However, from that, they infer that if he did not have guns and bullets, he would not have been able to kill all of those people,” Dr. Kjar notes. “This is a whole different question,” Dr. Kjar points out.

Dr. Kjar teaches economics at Baldwin-Wallace College. “After the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, many well-intentioned people all over the country have been calling for increased gun control laws,” Dr. Kjar observes. “However, economists tend to oppose gun control laws, since such laws generally pay no attention to basic economic issues.”

“Consider instead, though, the news we see every day from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Dr. Kjar suggests. “On the day this was written, a moving car bomb killed 19 and wounded 35 in a restaurant.”

“Meanwhile, a parked car bomb killed several more,” Dr. Kjar relates. “This is the sort of visible and spectacular mass destruction that Cho desired and it is not terribly difficult to produce a car bomb.”

“In fact, we see car bombings in the news almost every day, but mass shootings are so rare that we remember them all.” It should be noted that bombs, whether attached to a moving or stationary object, have been illegal for a longer time period and more universally than guns have.

Has this ban prevented their use?

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.

If you would like to comment on this article, please e-mail mal.kline@academia.org

[vetsvette]

“Economists understand that when government restricts one market, consumers merely move to another market, and when government tries to foreclose one means, individuals will simply shift into other means to achieve the same ends”

Yes, but what do liberals understand?

[Disturbin]

“Yes, but what do liberals understand?”

Bigger government, higher taxes and redistribution of wealth, to name a few .....

[Disturbin]

Where is the anti-bomb crowd?

Someone should start a group called MO-BED (Mothers Opposed to Bombs and Explosive Devices)

[LibFreeOrDie]

And in Scotland, since half of all murders are committed using knives, doctors want to ban kitchen knives, and the govt wants to ban swords:

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=579102005

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=762652006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/4788881.stm

[gcruse]

Oh, god, another poster using FR as a satellite printing plant for some publication, unwilling to reply to comments. Between this, LifeSite, and Prometheus Institute, FR feels like a dumping ground.

[theBuckwheat]

We only have to recall the fire at the Happy Land social club in NYC, in which 87 people died when a person who had been bounced from the club returned with a plastic container of gasoline which he spread on the only staircase into the club.

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happyland_Fire

I would also note that people who insist the world would be safe if only we got rid of ammunition don’t seem to care that there must be billions of rounds of it in private hands, and that even casually stored ammunition lasts generations.

Anyone can verify this by going to the next gun show and looking at what collectors are selling.

(We of course will also ignore the estimated 300 million existing guns that have been made to vanish in this scheme by yet more magic thinking.)

After they come for the guns, the knives are next. It has already started in the UK.

Is it legal on FreeRepublic to open a betting pool on the odds that the UK will be entirely disarmed before it gives away all its sovereignty to the EU or that the job won’t be done before the sovereignty is all gone?

see: Knife Rights Foundation
http://www.kniferights.org/

[stylin19a]

At Virginia Tech, “Many people argue that if the shooter did not have guns and bullets, he would not have been able to shoot all of those people,” Dr. Kjar writes. “This is surely correct.”

or...if other students had been allowed to carry, he would not have been able to shoot all those people...and this also is surely correct...