Part 1:

Required original 400 words

There is much discussion about the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms in the United States. For this module/week's Discussion Board Forum, locate 1 example of opinion writing on this subject (blog posts are usually good sources of opinion writing, and will be accepted for the limited purposes of this assignment), and 1 example of high quality analytical writing on the same subject (professional and peer-reviewed journal articles are best for this). Thoroughly compare and contrast the 2 articles, explaining what characteristics differentiated the opinion writing from the analytical writing. Provide specific examples and/or quotations that illustrate your analysis. Note that for the purpose of this exercise, "opinion writing" refers to work that is merely opinion in nature, lacking objectivity and supporting evidence.

Part 2:

Required original 400 words

The price system and government intervention. Consider the following questions:

1. Under what conditions (if any) should the government intervene in the market?

2. Should the government provide public goods? If so, how would the government know how much of the public good to provide?

3. How could government intervention be constrained or controlled so that rent-seeking and the personal goals of policy-makers do not result in bad policy?