Opinion Capital vs. Gun Rights

[SummerStriker]

Harvard Medical School researchers found that gun violence costs the U.S. some $557 billion annually, or 2.6% of gross domestic product, according to the peer-reviewed study published in the journal JAMA. The majority of that cost is attributed to quality-of-life losses among those injured by firearms and their families.

https://time.com/6217348/gun-violence-economic-costs-us/

Americans bought about 19.9 million firearms last year, down 12.5% from 2020, according to one industry estimate — but 2021 was still the industry’s second-busiest year on record, as politics and public health continue to drive interest in owning guns.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/01/05/us-bought-almost-20-million-guns-last-year---second-highest-year-on-record/?sh=553f196513bb

Even if everyone was buying Kimber revolvers and gimmicky AR-15s, it is unlikely that we are looking at more than like 38B in gun sales. Even if all 45% of US households with a firearm blew a hundred bucks on ammo in a year, that is only another 67B.

It seems like the economic cost to the state for gun ownership is VASTLY higher than what is being made off of it. Even if you add in the medical cost of gun violence, which is just 2.8B:

One study that looked specifically at more than 704,000 people who arrived at EDs with firearm-related injuries found much higher costs. The study by Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland, covering 2006 through 2014, found average per-patient ED charges of $5,254 a year, and inpatient charges of $95,887, adding up to $2.8 billion annually.

https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/cost-surviving-gun-violence-who-pays#:~:text=Initial costs are high.&text=ED care for firearm-related,to a 2021 GAO report .

We are only up to like 108B which is probably a gross overestimation. That's weighed against all the mass shooting lockdowns, lost wages, PTSD, greater need for militarized police, and so on. The ecological damage of filling fields full of lead.

It seems like owning guns is making us poorer as a nation, and dramatically so. 500B could be used to reduce the causes of violence overall, making everyone much healthier and safer.

 

[FIMN]

Yeah but look how free you are

 

[MichiganMMA1978]

We get it, you don't like guns...
Pledge yourself to Supreme leader Trudeau and apply for Canadian citizenship.
I promise, we won't stop you.

 

[HockeyBjj]

No one has ever argued we have the right to bear arms because the economy likes the cash influx from it

 

[rob mafia]

It seems like owning guns is making us poorer as a nation

weird, it seems like europe wants our weapons right now. strange that they're not in some rich bliss with their veritable gun bans/restrictions. i guess invaders won't turn around and go home if they hear that guns are banned or something.

on a related note, we spend like no money at all because of fentanyl/opiods/etc... probably because it's banned, therefore, no one can get it in the usa.

 

[FIMN]

weird, it seems like europe wants our weapons right now. strange that they're not in some rich bliss with their veritable gun bans/restrictions. i guess invaders won't turn around and go home if they hear that guns are banned or something.

...cmon dude, this is obviously disingenuous and you must have known that as you were writing this.

 

[My Spot]

 

[rob mafia]

...cmon dude, this is obviously disingenuous and you must have known that as you were writing this.

wat

 

[FIMN]

wat

Europe wanting weapons to defend against Russian invasion isn't the average euro citizen wanting an AR15 to take to McDonalds.

 

[rob mafia]

Europe wanting weapons to defend against Russian invasion isn't the average euro citizen wanting an AR15 to take to McDonalds.

...because that's what i argued or implied, amirite? who's being disingenuous? derp

funny that you even conceded with the first 3 words, though.

 

[Fugazy]

People who use the "that money could go to the exact opposite of this matter" have no idea how money or politics work in any meaningful way.

 

[SummerStriker]

People who use the "that money could go to the exact opposite of this matter" have no idea how money or politics work in any meaningful way.

I can pass a law that lets me ban guns, raise taxes, and put that new tax money in an account for a certain use.

 

[Fugazy]

I can pass a law that lets me ban guns, raise taxes, and put that new tax money in an account for a certain use.

No, you can't.

 

[SummerStriker]

No, you can't.

Not today, but it you haven't noticed, the public's taste for this or that can chsnge overnight.

 

[Fugazy]

Not today, but it you haven't noticed, the public's taste for this or that can chsnge overnight.

Not today, tomorrow or ever.

What you are describing is not possible in the US.

Literally.

 

[Fugazy]

Yeah but look how free you are

I'm not in prison tho...

 

[Deleted member 585708]

https://time.com/6217348/gun-violence-economic-costs-us/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/01/05/us-bought-almost-20-million-guns-last-year---second-highest-year-on-record/?sh=553f196513bb

Even if everyone was buying Kimber revolvers and gimmicky AR-15s, it is unlikely that we are looking at more than like 38B in gun sales. Even if all 45% of US households with a firearm blew a hundred bucks on ammo in a year, that is only another 67B.

It seems like the economic cost to the state for gun ownership is VASTLY higher than what is being made off of it. Even if you add in the medical cost of gun violence, which is just 2.8B:

https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/cost-surviving-gun-violence-who-pays#:~:text=Initial costs are high.&text=ED care for firearm-related,to a 2021 GAO report .

We are only up to like 108B which is probably a gross overestimation. That's weighed against all the mass shooting lockdowns, lost wages, PTSD, greater need for militarized police, and so on. The ecological damage of filling fields full of lead.

It seems like owning guns is making us poorer as a nation, and dramatically so. 500B could be used to reduce the causes of violence overall, making everyone much healthier and safer.

The price the US pays for gun ownership is utterly astronomical.

The 500 billion you reference is chump change compared to the loss of life.

 

[Long Dark Blues]

Liberty is expensive.

 

[oldshadow]

So I see freedoms and rights are for sale. You judge what rights we should have by how much money.

Well I'm sure we could save huge amounts of money if we did away with all that bothersome warrants. Just think of the money that takes.

I wonder how much money we could save if we did away with public defenders.

 

[rob mafia]

The price the US pays for gun ownership is utterly astronomical.

The 500 billion you reference is chump change compared to the loss of life.

weird, since overdose deaths are about 4x that of all gun deaths per year... and fentanyl, alone, costs the usa WAYYYYYYYY more than the $500B op quoted.

and yet, we're supposed to want to ban guns and legalize drugs. (il)logic!