A March 14 report from the Brookings Institution suggests creating a gun manufacturer cartel—immune from antitrust violations—that would allow them to limit supply and increase costs. A Gun Control Solution Manufacturers Can Get Behind came in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting in Parkland, Fla., on February 14.
“Legalizing a gun cartel by itself is a kind of gun control,” the report said. “Just as OPEC is the friend of any environmentalist who wants to reduce oil consumption, a gun manufacturing cartel will reduce the quantity of guns sold in order to raise prices.”
As an example, authors Ian Ayres and Abraham Wickelgren use the AR-15 rifle manufactured by a number of gun makers.
“[P]rotected by antitrust immunity, these erstwhile competitors could band together and raise the price toward what a monopolist would charge,” the report said. “The demand for guns has been estimated to have a fairly high price elasticity—so even relatively small price increases of these deadly firearms might have put them beyond the means of the purchasers of the AR-15 style rifles used in the Parkland, Newtown, and Aurora mass shootings.”
The authors added that the additional profits made by gun manufacturers could soften gunmakers’ resistance to other gun-control measures as well.
“Indeed, seeing gun-control through the lens of industrial organization helps identify the types of legislative initiatives where the intransigence is likely to be weakest,” the report said. “In fact, the industry should welcome efforts to reduce the stock of existing guns because this would increase the willingness to pay for new guns.”
While the report said this approach might be “far-fetched,” it noted that Congress already exempts professional baseball and insurance from the Sherman Antitrust Act.
“Instead of outrage at the influence of the gun industry, it is time to use their own self-interest to help advance the interest of public safety rather than to thwart it,” the report said. “‘More profits, fewer guns’ should be a slogan that can attract substantial support from all sides and may be the only way to overcome the gun lobby’s opposition to gun control.”
Read the entire report here.
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