The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie Why Banning Drugs and Guns Never Works
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Sep 16, 2025 Jacob Sullum, a Reason senior editor and author of Beyond Control, joins to discuss the complex impacts of drug prohibition and gun regulation in America. He highlights how decades of restrictive policies have backfired, failing to ensure safety while undermining individual liberties. The conversation dives into the racial roots of these laws, the contradictions in gun ownership rights, and the evolving public attitudes towards drug legalization and gun rights. Sullum advocates for a more nuanced approach to these pressing issues.
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Limits Of Predictive Disarmament
- Identifying who will commit mass shootings ahead of time is essentially impossible without sweeping false positives.
- Jacob Sullum warns casting a wide net will punish many innocent people while failing to reliably catch the violent few.
Red Flag Laws: Benefits And Tradeoffs
- Evidence for red flag laws preventing mass shootings is weak while their clearest effect is reducing suicides.
- Sullum emphasizes such laws disarm many who would never have harmed themselves or others, raising serious value judgments.
Mass Shootings Are Rare And Volatile
- Mass shootings are a tiny fraction of firearm homicides and are highly volatile year-to-year.
- Sullum notes overall violent crime is far lower than in the early 1990s despite recent pandemic blips.
