Rotten Capitalism

The economics of death: gun sales in the US

Another week in the US, another mass shooting. This time in the heart of Manhatten, in front of the Empire State building. There is now even a website that counts the days since the last mass shooting. How come that especially the US is faced with such a problem?

Just ask Steve Sanetti, the president of the National Shooting Sports foundation:

The $4.1 billion shooting industry has been growing in an otherwise anemic economy. We’re grateful and proud that our industry has helped maintain jobs from the manufacturer through retail levels during these difficult economic times.

Oh. And its true. For example Smith and Wesson sales surged 20 percent this year. The sales auf semi-automatic doubled from 900,000 in 1998 to 1,868,268 in 2009 according to this Forbes article. This industry is making big money and generates tax revenue in a time where most of the US economy doesn’t.

And following the mantra of US capitalism, there is less and less restrictions of gun posessions. Look at this graph above from Wikipedia and the impressive change from a restricted possession of weapons to a more and more unrestricted one.

Guns in the hands of the wrong people cause death. Whether they think Sikh are muslims, they have a dispute in front of the Empire State building or simply have mental issues. People like this will always exists and often its not even their own fault. This is exactly why guns are restricted in most societies. In the same way as we restrict the possession of drugs or chemicals to build bombs. Why should not everyone possess the right to carry plutonium? If no one builds a bomb, there will be no problem, right?

However, gun sales are big business in the US and thats good for the economy which benefits us all. Common, after all, someone has to take one for the team.