Have Gun Control, Will Travel

In a New York Times op-ed piece (city edition only), Reason contributor Walter Olson faults New York City's government for trying to impose its gun policies on the rest of the country. Under an ordinance signed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg last month, gun manufacturers and dealers are liable for crimes committed with their products unless they adopt city-dictated sales restrictions.

"Whatever the merits of the city's gun permit process, which makes it nearly impossible for ordinary residents to own guns lawfully, it's an act of aggression against citizens of other states to try to control gun sales nationwide, as the new ordinance would do," Olson writes. "The residents of Georgia, Idaho, Indiana and Vermont happen to prefer a different balance on gun liberty, and New Yorkers have no more right to pass a law overriding their chosen policy than, say, social conservatives in Salt Lake City or Cincinnati have a right to pass a law about the sale of alcohol or indecent literature in New York--no matter how annoyed they may be that some of those products make their way into their states."

Olson argues that such attempts to export gun control to other states (coupled with the potential threat to Second Amendment rights) justify congressional intervention.