Assignment

The Economics of Guns at the individual (micro) level: Should we encourage the private ownership of guns? After presenting both sides of the story, discuss your personal choice weighing the pros and cons of gun ownership. Lawyer D. Polsby alleges in his paper entitled "The False Promise of Gun Control," The Atlantic Monthly (1994) that guns do not increase crime rates but "that the proliferation of gun-control laws almost certainly does." By contrast, A. Kellermann et al., "Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home": The New England Journal of Medicine (October 7, 1993) suggests that gun ownership increases an individual's risk of being murdered rather than providing that person with self-protection. After exploring both sets of views, draw your own conclusion by taking sides on the two clashing views of gun control from an economic perspective of marginal benefit vs. marginal cost for the community.