Is this really appropriate for Hacker News?
I predict we'll see another re-hashing of the gun control / second amendment debate here in the comments.
There have been a few submissions lately that make me wonder if Hacker News is headed in the direction of Reddit. I don't mean to pick on yours particularly, the timing was just convenient.
Interesting "priceonomics-worthy" aspects of the global arms trade would be:
1) Longevity of weapons -- I mean, I saw maxim guns in Afghanistan. 2) The weird market in EUCs, embargoes, etc. 3) Stuff like Brown Moses/CJ Chivers where they analyze the weird origins of weapons used in current conflicts (e.g. Syria and Libya) -- weird low-volume US prototypes found in Libya, and Croatian knockoffs of other designs as part of some "elimination of stocks" by post-Balkan countries.
The NRA/domestic politics parts are the least interesting. Outside of small arms, the NRA has basically no relationship to the munitions industry, either.