Background Checks Reimagined
I was talking to a fellow Libertarian about the recent gun debate and we both agreed we were sick of hearing all the standard rhetoric that comes from every side of the debate. So I asked a simple question: What would be the Libertarian answer? In an ideal Libertarian society, what could we do to help prevent these tragedies? Now, some of the standard answers came up that you’ve heard a hundred times: get rid of gun free zones; give people the option to defend themselves; banning things doesn’t actually work; due process matters; etc, etc. But then I wondered, should there still be a kind of background check system that could potentially prevent someone who is intent on doing harm to themselves or others from buying a gun? What would that even look like in a Libertarian world? Such a system would need to be voluntary. Libertarians really don’t like being forced to participate in anything. It would need to be temporary; a mistake i...