Arkady
President
This isn't a practical suggestion (it would certainly be unconstitutional under the equal protection clause), but just an observation. We could probably get rid of most gun crime simply by testing testosterone levels. If your levels are low (e.g., you're a woman, or a man in his 50s or later, or a man who is extremely obese or sickly or has hormonal deficiencies), you'd be allowed to own a gun, since it's very rare for anyone with low testosterone levels to commit serious violent crimes.
As a practical matter, our violent crime problem is a problem with males between their mid-teens and their late 40s. Men are about nine times as likely to kill as women, and people in their peak crime years are four or five times as likely to kill as people in their early 50s (and the gap is even bigger as you move to older people). There were 35 female murderers over the age of 60 in the whole country, versus 2,315 males just between the ages 20 and 24.
As a practical matter, our violent crime problem is a problem with males between their mid-teens and their late 40s. Men are about nine times as likely to kill as women, and people in their peak crime years are four or five times as likely to kill as people in their early 50s (and the gap is even bigger as you move to older people). There were 35 female murderers over the age of 60 in the whole country, versus 2,315 males just between the ages 20 and 24.
