Moving The Overton Window In The Other Direction: Mandating Firearms Ownership

It's a cute but ultimately dumb idea, mostly because mandating anything is anathema to a free society. The article is actually well reasoned (aside from a factual error), and while it will never happen it is worth thinking about.

Must Pack Heat: The Case for Mandating Gun Ownership

Obamacare is the perfect model for Republicans to follow to settle the gun issue once and for all. Using the same legal reasoning as the Affordable Care Act, pro-gun legislators can win this war by pushing for an individual gun ownership mandate. Such a mandate can be from the top-down, a Federal mandate. Or, like Romneycare, it can be instituted on the state level first—West Virginia, here’s looking at you. We’ve seen this happen recently with this very issue. At first, concealed carry laws were only allowed in certain states. Now, all fifty states allow for such licenses. A gun-ownership mandate could play out the same way.

But just the conversation shifts the Overton Window just a bit, and I am all for that, especially in an era of rabid hoplophobia, and when the authoritarian Left is gleefully attacking our basic freedoms.

posted by CBD at 12:15 PM

| Access Comments