Planned obsolescence is a term usually applied to design and economics and refers to intentionally building a limited lifespan into a product to ensure sales of future versions of the same thing. For example, electronics manufacturers have been accused of putting products on the market for which they have already developed “superior” versions or that cannot effectively run constantly updating operating systems so consumers will quickly be forced to “upgrade.”
Gun control advocates, however, have also adopted this technique to ensure that today’s “solution” to firearm-related violence inevitably tees up tomorrow’s even stricter measure to close the former law’s “loopholes.” As an article this week in USA TODAY demonstrated, even as gun control advocates are pressing for laws to give judges the discretion to order the seizure of guns that people already own, they are already preparing to argue that this is not enough. The next step requires giving bureaucrats the discretion to determine who should own guns in the first place.
The article[1] is one of the more nuanced discussions of the recent events in Jacksonville, Florida, and pointed out that the suspect in that case ironically obtained the firearm he allegedly used to commit his crimes in the much stricter gun control jurisdiction of Maryland. Specifically, the article cited rankings compiled by the (very anti-gun) Giffords Law Center to Prevent Violence, which gave Maryland an A- for its gun control laws, placing it among a half-dozen states in America with unusually stringent firearm restrictions.
By all accounts, the 24-year-old Jacksonville suspect had a rather tumultuous past. As a minor he was at the center of a bitter divorce and custody battle between his parents, had boisterous arguments with his mother to which police repeatedly responded, and was subject to
