How Can We Control Guns Given Broad Public Support for Gun Ownership?
America’s experiments with banning guns – like the leaky 1994 prohibition on some assault weapons – haven’t touched the handguns criminals prefer. Some gun control advocates understandably insist these have been half-way measures bound to fail, and urge us to go much further. To them, Jacobs has a simple response: ain’t gonna happen. Politically and logistically, universally prohibiting gun ownership is impossible, even if (and it’s a big “if”) it remains constitutionally permissible. For starters, the National Rifle Association is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the nation. But the NRA’s success is, in one sense, misleading; it is not just another special interest group. Fixated on the lobby’s sometimes appalling rhetoric and knee-jerk opposition to virtually any regulation, gun control advocates have too readily caricatured their opponents as a rich but lunatic fringe. This is a mistake. The support for gun-ownership in America is wide and deep. Consider these stat
