Tradeoffs: Gun locks

John Lott has a thoughtful column in the Washington Times, “A False Safety”. It points out the unintended consequences of gun laws.

Failing to address tradeoffs often costs lives.

Here are some excerpts.

“Academic studies of safe-storage and gun-lock laws have also overwhelmingly found no evidence that they reduce the total number of suicides -- although a few studies have found some small reductions in suicides committed with guns. There are simply too many ways to commit suicide. If people are intent on killing themselves, they will still do it, with or without a gun.”

“Yet, gun locks also pose real risks. Besides the costs that may deter poor people from buying guns, locked guns are also not as readily accessible for defensive gun uses. Since potentially armed victims deter criminals, storing a gun locked and unloaded may therefore increase crime.”

“Research that I have done examining juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides for all U.S. states from 1977 to 1998 found that safe-storage laws had no impact on either type of death. The families that obeyed the laws were the ones where there were essentially no accidental deaths occurring. What did happen, however, was that law-abiding citizens were less able to defend themselves against crime.”

John closes his article with:

“Laws frequently have unintended consequences. Sometimes even the best intentioned ones cost lives.”

Right on, John.