Ken Braun: Banning guns will work as well as the war on drugs [View all]

[Bay Boy]

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/02/ken_braun_banning_guns_will_wo.html

The President says his assault weapons ban will bring safer streets. But how will criminalizing firearm ownership reduce gun violence any more effectively than the War on Drugs has cleansed the streets of drug trade violence?

With 300+ million private firearms in America - clearly a huge demand for the product - no sane person thinks a new law will cause a single bad guy to voluntarily give one up. Only the well-behaved will be disarmed.

I find his take on legalizing drugs the interesting part of this editorial and refreshing for him being a Republican

Instead, if you believe drug addiction will remain an isolated problem for tragic people, regardless of legal status, then there's no convincing reason to keep spending what a Harvard economist says will be just short of $1 trillion dollars more on the same failed policy over the next decade.

That's the damage to law-abiding taxpayers in law enforcement costs, prisons, and foregone tax revenue. And the result is the enrichment of wealthy gangsters who pay no taxes. We have taken a very destructive personal habit done by unfortunate people - drug addicts - and exploded it into an organized crime wave requiring a huge expansion of big government.