And all along we thought you were talking about consumer side
externalities. Please be clear. As for producer side externalities,
beyond tort expenses that are a function of how ridiculously tortious a
given jurisdiction, combined with device safety factors, there would be
little in the way of external costs, unless you want to go into
externalized energy production costs, mining costs, etc. which, in the
end ARE paid for by somebody, which eventually comes around to effect
the market cost/value of a gun. Given that a gun bearing populace seems
to effect a lower tax rate (comparing the datapoints of Europe, the US
in general, and New Hampshire (the main production point of Sturm, Ruger
& Co., the only significant firearms manufacturer left with production
facilities in the US)), gun production seems to have a synergistic
effect on maintaining low labor and tax costs, a high quality of life
and low cost of living for employees, and given decades of annual
profits and rising stock prices, a positive return on investment.
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?