Reader Command’oh writes:
The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that about 1.4 million guns were stolen from 2005-2010, and other studies give even higher estimates. Most of these guns end up on the black market where dealers (shockingly) don’t run background checks. If we can reduce the number of stolen guns entering the black market, the black market price will rise. This could lead to a decrease in the number of crimes involving guns.
While not a perfect solution, the wide spread use of gun safes would reduce the total number of guns stolen in the US. Making it more difficult to steal firearms should result in fewer firearms stolen.
The question is, how do we encourage their use? The answer: the same way government encourages anything else…tax incentives. If the government wants you to buy an electric car or solar panels for your home, they offer a tax credit. Assuming less gun crime is the goal, offering gun owners a tax credit should result in gun owners buying more gun safes. It’s simple economics.
This is a win-win for everyone. Since there’s no requirement that you buy or use a gun safe, nobody’s rights are curtailed. Gun owners who choose to buy a safe save some cash. And the ant-gun left can claim they’ve “done something” about guns by doing what they do best — throwing a bunch of taxpayer money at the problem. Who knows? It may actually work.