Freakonomics Podcast on gun control laws

[ag1052]

Freakonomics » How to Think About Guns: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

Im a big fan of Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics the books but I just found out this podcast existed. I always wondered what their take on gun control laws is. I think this podcast is really well done. They dont have a side in this fight and are able to look at it from the outside in. I know a lot of right wing people really didnt like these guys because of their chapter on abortion in their first book but they never said abortion was good rather they just looked at some of its unintended side effects.

If you listen to the podcast please post your thoughts about it.

 

[benenglish]

I was mostly underwhelmed.

The economist made many good points but he also expressed an opinion (with no research or numbers) that the existence of freedom in the U.S.A. was in no way a deterministic outcome from the presence of firearms. That was a bleed-through of a silly bias and really rubbed me the wrong way. Our history was not as accidental as he made out and guns often helped determine that history. As a gun guy, I would also append "in a good way" to that previous sentence, something I feel he wouldn't quite understand.

Make no mistake, as always on Freakonomics there was a great deal of logical thought. In some cases, too logical for some people to swallow. His reference to the number of "pure innocents" who die from gun violence as "trivial" is true but heartless. We can't use that as an argument in the way he presented it because people on the fence would view us as monsters. I could not pull this portion of the podcast into a policy argument without being shut down by the opposition. I was hearing an out-of-touch, purely academic perspective at that point and while I appreciated it for what it was, I was also mildly irritated in the manner of "So what?" because this is an issue (a purely emotional, not directly economic issue, granted) that we must deal with.

OTOH, the discussion of firearms as "disruptors of the natural order" was brilliantly insightful yet incomplete since it ignored the rise in CCWs and the impact of those on crime. He didn't even bother to quote the old Colt saying about making men equal, so I'm not sure he understood this was a really, really old notion. He actually referred to his source book as "if it's still in print", leading me to believe that he's dealing with a valid insight but old data. In short, if he was a "gun guy", he wouldn't have sounded quite so ignorant in that section.

At the end, he actually said something that made more sense than anything any politician could ever come up with - to deal with gun violence, we need to get rid of the people who would commit crimes with guns. The most economical way to do that, he said, was better parenting. That sorta blindsided me, both with the fact that it was so out of character from the rest of the podcast and that it was so very, very right. It was a good note to end the podcast.

 

[TheDan]

...as always on Freakonomics there was a great deal of logical thought. In some cases, too logical for some people to swallow. His reference to the number of "pure innocents" who die from gun violence as "trivial" is true but heartless. We can't use that as an argument in the way he presented it because people on the fence would view us as monsters.

That's sort of the point of the Freakonomics stuff... They attempt to take emotion, morality, and politics out of an issue and come up with a purely economic solution. I guess I'm a heartless bastard because I really like the concept.

I have their first book, but never finished it. Need get on that...

 

[AGreenSmudge]

At the end, he actually said something that made more sense than anything any politician could ever come up with - to deal with gun violence, we need to get rid of the people who would commit crimes with guns. The most economical way to do that, he said, was better parenting. That sorta blindsided me, both with the fact that it was so out of character from the rest of the podcast and that it was so very, very right. It was a good note to end the podcast.

My gf and I have been trying to tell people that for years, but they just look at us like we're lunatics.

All I can really do is make sure I raise my son right.