Some Remarks on the Prohibition of Handguns

Abstract

This article, taken from a speech given in a symposium on American violence sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, considers the cost-effectiveness of federal legislation that would impose the New York System, or any other system, of banning handguns, nationwide. Proponents of such a ban too optimistically assume that murderers would not simply find another instrument to commit the crime. Among other things, one must consider costs associated with jailing thousands of otherwise law-abiding people who choose to continue to possess handguns and enforcing a restrictive national permit requirement with what would require massive police power.