Letter To The Editor:

There have been several incidents in the past few years that have made the American people question whether the right to bear arms should exist or not even though it’s a constitutional right. The argument is usually from an ethical standpoint however, and not an economic one. What would the effect of banning guns have on the American economy?

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There are many stores all over the country that either sell guns as well as other products, or only specifically sell guns. If firearms are banned, what effect would this have on those stores? Not to mention gun ranges, that cater to people who own guns. If guns were to be banned, then gun manufacturers would suffer, the distributors would go bankrupt and the services such as gun ranges would no longer exist. The main focus of this research was to determine the effect that a ban of all firearms would have, not including specific bans of attachments or ammunition or specific types of firearms.

Between July of 2019 and November of 2021, around 56,607,000 guns were sold (Statista). According to a report made by the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) in 2021, the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Industry created around 375,819 jobs in the United States, and “the firearm and ammunition industry was responsible for as much as $70.52 billion in total economic activity in the country” (NSSF). The report also mentions how much the industry pays in taxes, with $4,593,595,500 being paid to the federal government and $3,265,333,100 being paid to state governments. If firearms are banned and the industry essentially has to shut down, all of this would be gone.

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Gun bans would have a major impact on the manufacturers and distributors of guns. Revenue would decrease and suffer, jobs would be lost, and the total contribution of the gun industry to the economy would drop. When the government presents the option of gun buy backs, they are paying people to turn in their guns. Not only would there be a decrease in income to the government from taxes, but they would be losing even more money with the buy backs. I do not personally like the idea of buy backs because I do not feel as though they solve anything.

In conclusion, the firearm industry as a whole makes a major contribution to the U.S. economy. It has created many jobs and creates a large amount of tax revenue, both to state governments and the federal government. The gun industry has also added a lot to the economic activity of the U.S. I think the economy would suffer from this but it would not be crippled. There would be a lot of stores that would be forced to shut down as well as other services, and there would be a lot of people who lose their jobs.

Douglas Drake

Opinions expressed in this section are solely those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of RiverBender.com or its affiliates. We provide a platform for community voices, but the responsibility for opinions rests with their authors.

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