persona non sequitur

a review of media by a slightly jaded baby boomer.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Today, it was too hot to eat in my car. I was in the lunchroom. It has two TV sets in it. One was showing JERRY SPRINGER and the other had WHEEL OF FORTUNE.  I don't care for either. Drew Carey, who MC's the wheel, used to be a stand up comic and a fairly good comic actor. With this job, he can coast and forget about trying to have some sort of reputation. The other show, I can watch, and after viewing it, feel perfectly normal.

For about an hour, the News Journal's on line publicatrion listed the Colorado shooter as "John Holmes".



Capitalism can solve Gun violence.

From where I sit it’s clear, no matter how awful the massacre committed by some nut with a gun we don’t want to trust the government with gun control. Well how about the free market? People who tend to embrace laissez faire gun control also tend to be true believers in Capitalism’s ability to solve all the world’s problems. And they are right.
All guns should come with insurance, just like cars.
We have insurance on our cars because they cause damage to things, death and/or injuries that result in medical, and long term care bills.
Why not do the same for guns? Really it’s that simple. Trust capitalism. It solves everything.
We don’t trust the government to assess risk. We don’t trust the government to catch gun nuts like the jerk wad  (I will not use his name. He doesn’t deserve it) in Aurora  Colorado. We don’t want the government keeping tabs on gun owners. After the Fast and Furious fiasco we don’t trust that our government has the computing capacity to follow all the weapons and make the deduction: Um…Some one is buying a lot of guns, maybe  something’s going on here? Insurance companies do all of these things all the time, and they make their profits by being really really good as assessing risks and charging accordingly. You can have all the guns you want, just like you can have all the cars you want. You just need to be responsible. If you take your car or your gun out for a spin, you’ll need to make sure that both devices (both of which are collections of precision machined parts that move and can kill) are covered. This way we’re not judging or controlling guns. We are doing what truly needs to be done. We are letting an objective entity assess the risks posed by owners and charge them accordingly.    
Right now the policy on a Porsche, owned by a 19 year old male, costs more than a policy on a Chevy minivan, owned by a 42 year old female. Insurance for cars owned by city folks tends to be more expensive than policies for cars owned by suburban folks. These differences are all based on risk factors and actuarial tables compiled over decades.
A policy on a hunting rifle would be like the policy for the soccer mom’s minivan. An assault rifle is the Porsche.
Maybe a shot gun for a 70 year old duck hunter will be the equivalent of moped, no insurance needed at all. The States and the market get to decide.
And the US insurance companies can be trusted to keep stats over time, and make safety  recommendations, like take defensive driving, keep your guns in a safe, and we’ll give you a discount. It’s what they do. Safe gun behavior, like safe driving will have a monetary reward and punishment system.
Your gun hurts some one? It’s a market place/insurance adjuster’s matter. Victims and hospital bills will be taken care of.
If your gun is stolen you’ll have a really strong motivation for reporting it unless you enjoy paying the insurance on something you don’t own anymore. 
And control stays with the States. This will not affect hidden carry permits or waiting periods at all. Each state gets to decide if they want the insurance policies on guns and what the thresholds will be, and the consequences if you have a gun that’s uninsured ranging from a parking ticket to getting impounded. Jerk wad in Colorado? He should have been paying for a parking lot full of Porsches or lost them all.  Capitalism can solve this.

Giani Siri