Getting shot is just one part of the Problem
Last edited Tue Jul 24, 2012, 01:33 PM - Edit history (1)
Social cost is, like risk, something we humans suck at analyzing. We see big effects but the cumulative impact of a host of small effects is less attention-getting even if that cumulative effect is huge.
Getting shot is a problem, of course. And when people are shot in spectacular incidents it is easy to recognize the cost.
But the cost of not getting shot is also a big problem. The measures we take to deal with our "freedoms" are a major source of erosion of freedom, and costly as heck.
How much national productivity and human enjoyment of life is lost to metal detectors every day? Is it normal to be patted down when entering stadiums and some nightclubs?
How about the people who feel obliged to buy guns for the defense of their families because everyone else has guns? (Nobody watches porn in self defense.)
There were calls here for all movie theaters to alarm and install video surveilance on all theater exit doors. And have armed guards at theatres. How many millions and millions of dollars added to ticket prices would that represent?
The costs are everywhere.
Why can a cop search your car without a warrant? Because you might have a gun. A cop can pull you over for having a tail-light out and then search everything in your car you can reach. The only Constitutional basis for that search is that there is a reasonable concern that you have a gun, against which the cop may 'protect' himself.
Based on the expectation that everyone has a gun, cops increasingly act as if... well, as if everyone had a gun! The whole citizenry is a presumed military enemy.
When people say, "freedom isn't free" I doubt they mean to say, "You should expect that your freedoms will mandate the loss of even more freedoms."
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