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The best and most effective way to disrupt the illegal handgun market is to impose a nationwide limit of one handgun purchase per month, excepting the purchase of handgun collector sets. I know, the NRA and gun enthusiasts are now jumping out of their seats and screaming that such a restriction violates their Second Amendment rights. My response to such claims are: 1) the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” are legal; 2) common sense dictates that even if handguns do help individuals feel safe (they don’t actually create more safety), then why would anyone need to purchase more than one handgun per month (hunters certainly don’t use handguns to kill their prey); and 3) if we save lives, isn’t this what we should be doing? Even without records to track handgun purchases, the restriction to purchase one handgun at a time would create a major crimp in the “success” of the gun trafficking market.
We need to place restrictions (yes, there’s that evil word again) on the purchase of ammunition for handguns, the perishables in the gun business. We can restrict the purchase of ammunition to those who are licensed or eligible to purchase guns (as Connecticut has done). We can also impose a limit on the number of handgun bullets that can be purchased at any one time. And we can impose high taxes on ammunition. Such taxes could be used to implement effective violence-reduction strategies — strategies that are needed to supplement efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.