America Doesn’t Need a War on Guns: New at Reason

Predictably, calls for gun control have escalated after the grisly Las Vegas mass shooting. According to a Politico poll, 64 percent of voters support stricter gun law, including 41 percent who strongly support them. That’s up from 61 percent in June. And 29 percent oppose stricter gun laws, including 16 percent in strong opposition.

But Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia argues that no matter how good gun control sounds in theory, it is impractical and dangerous in practice because you can’t simply will away a deeply entrenched gun culture that harkens to America’s founding. Even if it were the case that lower gun ownership means lesser gun violence, America is awash in guns.Trying to take away people’s guns will require a veritable civil war that’ll be every bit—if not more—draconian as the conservative war on terrorism.

America needs a completely different paradigm to avert mass murder.

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