Weapon of Choice

Fighting Gun Violence While Respecting Gun Rights

Ian Ayres, Fredrick E. Vars

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Hardback

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English

Harvard University Press
27 October 2020

Crime & criminology; Political ideologies; Constitutional & administrative law; Mental health law

How ordinary Americans, frustrated by the legal and political wrangling over the Second Amendment, can fight for reforms that will both respect gun owners' rights and reduce gun violence.

Efforts to reduce gun violence in the United States face formidable political and constitutional barriers. Legislation that would ban or broadly restrict firearms runs afoul of the Supreme Court's current interpretation of the Second Amendment. And gun rights advocates have joined a politically savvy firearms industry in a powerful coalition that stymies reform.

Ian Ayres and Fredrick Vars suggest a new way forward. We can decrease the number of gun deaths, they argue, by empowering individual citizens to choose common-sense gun reforms for themselves. Rather than ask politicians to impose one-size-fits-all rules, we can harness a libertarian approach-one that respects and expands individual freedom and personal choice-to combat the scourge of gun violence.

Ayres and Vars identify ten policies that can be immediately adopted at the state level to reduce the number of gun-related deaths without affecting the rights of gun owners. For example, Donna's Law, a voluntary program whereby individuals can choose to restrict their ability to purchase or possess firearms, can significantly decrease suicide rates. Amending red flag statutes, which allow judges to restrict access to guns when an individual has shown evidence of dangerousness, can give police flexible and effective tools to keep people safe. Encouraging the use of unlawful possession petitions can help communities remove guns from more than a million Americans who are legally disqualified from owning them. By embracing these and other new forms of decentralized gun control, the United States can move past partisan gridlock and save lives now.

By: Ian Ayres, Fredrick E. Vars
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780674241091
ISBN 10: 0674241096
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 27 October 2020
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ian Ayres is the William K. Townsend Professor of Law and Professor of Management at Yale University. He is the author of many books, including the New York Times bestseller Super Crunchers. He is a contributor to Forbes, NPR’s Marketplace, and the New York Times. Fredrick E. Vars is the Ira Drayton Pruitt, Sr., Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, where he specializes in mental health law. He works with numerous suicide-prevention organizations and is a member of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Gun Violence.

Reviews for Weapon of Choice: Fighting Gun Violence While Respecting Gun Rights

Five stars! A truly innovative book that does not simply advocate the same old litany of mandatory gun laws. Whatever your political persuasion, you will find that their ideas could help alleviate some of the public health problems caused by firearms that we all want to see reduced. -David Hemenway, author of Private Guns, Public Health Gun violence is one of America's most pressing problems. We have very few solutions, or even new ideas. This important book provides some genuinely new ideas that also, by respecting the deeply-held but conflicting values people have around guns, seem feasible and hence helpful for the widely-shared goal of saving lives. -Jens Ludwig, coauthor of Gun Violence: The Real Costs Gun violence remains a nationwide crisis, and comprehensive, innovative legislation is needed to save lives. Ayres and Vars are opening an important new discussion about how state government can take an active role in preventing gun violence. -Gina Raimondo, Governor of Rhode Island Ayres and Vars craft an innovative new legal tool people can use to defend themselves against gun violence-including self-harm. The book is packed with conceptual insights about the nature of freedom and self-restriction, as well as creative and promising new policy alternatives. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the gun debate. -Joseph Blocher, coauthor of The Positive Second Amendment This bold yet disarming prescription for new and promising gun policies seeks to empower and protect the citizenry while expanding and protecting individual rights. Ayres and Vars illustrate that government can reduce suicides and diminish the risk of gun violence without triggering the opposition of even the most ardent Second Amendment enthusiasts. -John J. Donohue III, author of Law and Economics of Discrimination While the authors tend to favor more regulation, they write with an understanding of and respect for the tens of millions of Americans who cherish the right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment. This understanding and respect can foster the trust necessary to evaluate their proposals free from the rancor that makes critical analysis difficult in discussions about sound gun policy. -Brannon P. Denning, coauthor of Guns and the Law