Doesn’t matter. We’ll ban both. https://twitter.com/alec_sears/status/1317550849242075137

Since the gun enthusiasts have found this, here’s my take on gun policy: Irrespective of the political constraints, good gun policy looks like Japan’s. In Japan, virtually all firearms save hunting rifles and shotguns are banned. The requirements for ownership are strict.

Japan has a fraction of the homicide rate of even the next runner up. That’s despite being a nation of 125 million people with a long history of organized crime. But it’s not just Japan with far less homicides, it’s virtually every other developed country that regulates firearms

The economic costs of mass gun ownership are enormous as well. Estimates put it in the hundred of billions. The oft cited figure is over 200 billion based on a congressional report published by the House Joint Economic committee. https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a8c89469-30a1-4b88-b3f5-0c5e54ad5df0/economic-impact-of-gun-violence-final.pdf

But other sources have come to similar conclusions: Phillip Cook put the number at about $100-$600 per American household. http://nber.org/papers/w10736 

As for the “what about authoritarianism” argument, non-violent campaigns for civil liberties and against oppressive regimes are MORE likely to succeed. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/11/05/peaceful-protest-is-much-more-effective-than-violence-in-toppling-dictators/%3foutputType=amp

Here’s a fun chart from the article:

As for the deterrence against tyranny argument, there’s also not a ton of evidence for that. Private militias often buttress state oppression with deniable political violence. Mass organization of gun toting militias is actually bad for democracy. https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/countries-with-high-gun-ownership-are-just-as-likely-to-be-run-by-tyrants.amp

As an example, Iraq had a pronounced gun culture under Saddam. It didn’t stop him from committing a few genocides against his own people. The modern state is more than a match for individual firearm ownership.

As for the 2nd amendment: we’ve amended the constitution 27 times. It looks virtually nothing like early republic and that’s a good thing. I understand the difficulties of the amendment process but for a purely hypothetical policy, that’s a shit argument.

There’s no good reason why gun ownership should be an inherent right. It’s not in virtually every other developed democracy on earth and they get by just fine.

Fine I’ll compromise. We pigovian tax gun ownership to socially optimal rates https://twitter.com/King__Spades/status/1318239711350108160