Guns, Vices and Freedom, Oh My: A Preliminary Empirical Investigation

This Essay estimates factors within States that are associated with per capita firearms ownership and the extent of legal restrictions concerning firearms. The metrics are: for the former, a proxy consisting of the fraction of suicides with a firearm; for the latter, Giffords Law Center’s ratings of the restrictiveness of a State’s regulation of firearms. For each, the Essay estimates the relationship between it and each of the levels of vices and freedom.