Gun Controllers Have
It All Figured Out

By Charles C. W. Cooke. Feb 23, 2023

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Their latest idea is to make firearms prohibitively expensive through taxation — but this would be unconstitutional.

In the Financial Times, Gillian Tett offers up what she apparently believes to be a spiffing new idea for circumventing the protections of the Second Amendment and reducing the number of firearms in private hands to a level that she thinks would be more acceptable.

“Searching for something to break the gridlock can feel hopeless,” Tett writes, especially when gun-control remains “anathema to many Republicans, who control the House of Representatives.” But despair not, for she has a cunning plan: Instead of waiting for legislators to impose the panoply of draconian restrictions that she covets, all Congress needs to do is price prospective gun-owners out of the market. “It’s time for a serious tax on guns in America,” Tett submits. “New research suggests first-time gun buyers are sensitive to price. Policymakers should take note.”

Oh, Lord, not this again.

To her credit, Tett is admirably open about her intentions. (We’ll call her ploy “Tett’s Offensive.”) “Instead of presenting the policy choices purely in terms of constitutional law, safety or human rights,” she recommends that gun-control activists “invoke some dry economic analysis instead.” But, of course, this makes no sense. As a rhetorical matter, Tett is free to focus on whichever element of the question she believes will gain the most purchase within the debate. But she should not delude herself into thinking that, by ignoring the constitutional problems with her proposal, she has any chance whatsoever of fooling others. .....