枪支责任险能遏制枪杀案吗？

    尽管如此，经济学家还是列出了持有枪支的价格成本，密歇根大学（University of Michigan）经济学教授贾斯丁•沃尔夫斯最近通过美国国家公共电台（NPR）也对此进行了说明。成本不仅包括购买枪支的实际花费，而且还包括经济学家所谓的“社会成本”——即枪杀无辜人士之后可能引发的悲痛和损失的价格成本。沃尔夫斯引用了2005年的一项调查写道，对于持有枪支的家庭来说，这一成本的区间是100-1,800美元/年。

    虽然责任险可以用于支付这个成本，但人们不禁会想，就算那些穷凶恶极、持有枪支的暴力犯罪分子会进行枪支注册，但是也没有多少人会购买责任险，因为法律中没有规定。

    麻州众议员大卫•林斯基在1月提交了一份法案，要求对不投保的枪支持有者处以罚款或关押。他说，不管怎么样，责任险可以降低事故率——那些对枪支进行安全储存的枪支所有者将支付较少的保费。

    正如沃尔夫斯所建议的那样，如果有责任险的存在，桑迪胡克枪击案可能会有所不同。

    他写道：“这是一种谨慎的解决方案，它既可以让喜欢打猎的人们继续追求自己的爱好，也会敦促人们采取预防措施，而且人们也都希望兰扎一家（桑迪胡克枪击案凶手的家庭——译注）在一开始就能采取这一预防措施。”然而，保险行业最终会同意这么做吗？（财富中文网）

    Nonetheless, economists have come up with the price of owning a gun, as University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers recently noted to NPR . It's not just the actual cost of buying the weapon, but there's also what economists call "social costs" -- the price of grief and loss that might follow if the gun were used to take the lives of innocent people. This could run anywhere between $100 and $1,800 per year for a gun-owning household, Wolfer writes, citing a 2005 study.

    Liability insurance might compensate for such costs, but it's also hard not to wonder if the most violent criminals that own guns would even register their weapons anyway, much less buy liability insurance because the law says so.

    Regardless, liability insurance could reduce accidents -- owners who store their weapons safely would pay less for insurance, as Massachusetts State Rep. David Linsky said when he introduced a bill in January to fine or jail anyone found in possession of a gun without insurance.

    As Wolfer suggests, liability insurance might have made a difference in the Sandy Hook shootings.

    "It's the sort of careful solution that would enable people who enjoy hunting to continue with their passions but also push them to take the sorts of precautions that we all wish the Lanza household had taken," he writes.

    Could insurers eventually agree?