End Drug War, Cut Gun Violence

By Adam Bates Adam Bates

While the gun control policies pushed in the name of “common sense” move increasingly into the realm of wishful thinking, the most common sense approach of all is being entirely ignored: ending the drug war.

Tragic mass shootings get all the media attention and tend to garner the most impassioned calls for tighter gun control laws. But gun violence related to the drug war kills many more people. If gun control advocates really want to prevent more homicides, it’s not background checks that will get us there. It’s decriminalization of drugs.

The exact magnitude of violent crime caused by the criminalization of drugs remains unknown, but we can get a reasonable starting point by looking at the data for gang-related crime. Illicit drug proceeds are the lifeblood of gang behavior, and competition over market “turf” is the primary driver of gang violence. The government estimates that more than 2,000 homicides a year are gang-related. That’s two orders of magnitude higher than mass shootings, which on average take around 30 to 40 people’s lives a year nationwide.

“Give up on unworkable, illogical gun laws and hit the violent criminal underworld where it hurts: End the black market for drugs.”

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Source:: Cato Institute