With two more mass shootings, in El Paso and Dayton, we are told we must “do something.” Generally, that means gun control, though it now also seems to include “red flag” laws, as well as more spending for mental health and doing something about violent video games. Okay, let’s do it, subject of course to the Constitution. Not only the Second Amendment, but also the other ones: the First, Fourth, Fifth, etc.
But after we “do something,” let’s also try to do something that works. Megan McArdle, at The Washington Post, has a couple of ideas on this subject (here and here). Aggressive stop-and-frisk policing has seemed to reduce murder rates in places like New York City, but many people don’t like what they see as police harassment of minorities. Also, given the distrust of the police by many people in places like Chicago, you wonder how it would work there. Plus, these kinds of tactics wouldn’t stop mass shootings, though reducing day-to-day murders might save more lives than reducing mass shootings over a whole year.
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