Guns: Democrats vow to end the American Plague

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. A number of possible responses:

Firstly and most importantly, alcohol users mostly kill themselves; gun users kill a lot of other people.

Secondly the cost-benefit calculation is very different: a lot more people derive a lot more pleasure from alcohol than from firearms. Similarly, cars kill 45,000 Americans a year to guns 30-35,000, but again they do much more good.

Thirdly and least importantly, it's much harder to stop people making and selling alcohol than it is to stop them making and selling guns, because it's much easier to make.