Governments have a habit of throwing money at problems…

• DC government will pay criminals not to commit crimes: $9,000 a year / 200 people
• Did This City Bring Down Its Murder Rate by Paying People Not to Kill?: $300 to $1,000 / 50 people
• California Mayor Proposes $1,000 for People Considered ‘Most Likely to Shoot Somebody’: $12,000/year

…unless it might go to honest folks. Like honest, noncriminal gun owners.

• Philipstown Enacts Safe-Storage Gun Law: $1,000 fine and a year in jail

So they’ll pay criminals to “behave,” but punish gun owners for not “behaving.” I’ve got a better idea.

Just those three Danegeld cities would account for some $6 million a year in extortion payments. That would buy more than 105,000 of these little gun safes, and handguns are the preferred firearm of choice — small, concealable, easily disposed of — for criminals.

Instead of criminalizing theft victims, and paying off the predators, how about incentivizing guns owners to secure unattended weapons?

Michael Bloomberg spent $20 million just on Nevada’s 2016 background check initiative, only to see it fail when it turned out his toadies wrote an unenforceable proposition. He could have spent the same money on 350,000 gun safes — for more than 10% of the state’s population –, and actually accomplished something.

For that matter, $20 million would provide excellent bounty payments for would-be victims who take out the criminal who attempted to prey upon them. A two-fer: incentivizing defense and elimination of criminal predators.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could use the money, what with truck repairs and recurring bills.