Posted by David Kopel: Does the Right to Arms Impede or Promote Economic Development?
That's the title of a forthcoming [1]article I've co-authored for Engage, the journal of The Federalist Society. Gun prohibition advocates and their United Nations supporters claim that the presence of "small arms and light weapons" causes economic underdevelopment. The Engage article studies Latin America, Kenya, and Zambia, and concludes that the claims about small arms are implausible. The article also explains the extremely harmful economic effects of UN policies regarding malaria and AIDS in the Third World. Finally, the article observes that bad, corrupt government is the most significant impediment to economic development, and that in some cases, citizen possession of small arms can provide protection from abusive government. References 1. http://www.davekopel.com/2A/Foreign/Development.pdf _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
