Which is easier to buy in Maine: a gun or a chicken?

The US needs stricter firearms laws. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a fenced area or enclosure of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - In [Maine](, it’s easy to [carry](. - Housing [prices]( are still scary. - Fentanyl is made by an [adversary](. - [Volatility]( looks rather ordinary. Which Came First – the Chicken or the Gun? Let’s say you’re interested in raising chickens in your backyard. Can you just drive up to a random farm and ask if you can buy some birds? Of course not. Towns and cities have rules for raising chickens. If you lived in Lewiston, Maine, for instance, you would need to meet the following requirements: - Only female chickens are allowed - The maximum number of chickens allowed is six - Chickens must be purchased from an approved source - Chickens shall be kept as pets and for personal use only - Owners cannot sell eggs or engage in chicken breeding - The slaughtering of chickens is prohibited - Chickens must be kept in a fenced area or enclosure at all times - Chicken houses can’t be closer than 20 feet to any property line - Chicken orders shall not be perceptible at the property boundaries - Chicken noises shall not be loud enough to disturb neighbors - Owners must reduce the attraction of predators and rodents - Chickens infested with insects/parasites may be removed by the City It’s a lot of rules for an animal that has a walnut-sized brain. And that’s just my abridged version of Lewiston’s ordinance requirements for [domesticated chickens](. It really makes one wonder why, exactly, society has so many rules for chicken owners and not for gun owners. The Pine Tree State [does not require](background checks or permits to purchase a handgun. Its [lack]( of basic firearm rules makes the state #25 in the country for gun law strength, according to Everytown for Gun Safety (which was founded by Mike Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP). As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, a man allegedly went on a killing spree with an AR-15-style rifle last night at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston. At least [18 people]( are dead and 13 others injured. Since the suspect remains at large, residents of surrounding towns have been under [lockdown]( and many schools and businesses were closed today. “What can we say that we haven’t said before?” That was the question we mulled over at our editors’ meeting this morning. As of this year, nearly 1 in 5 US adults say they have had a family member killed by a gun, including homicides and suicides, according to [KFF](. One in six (17%) say they personally witnessed someone being shot. And 75% of adults in gun-owning households have a firearm in their home that is either unlocked, loaded or kept with ammunition. The reality is that gun violence is a policy choice, and until our policies around owning these weapons change, mass shootings will continue to happen again and again and again. Is there a constitutional right to a military-style semiautomatic rifle like an AR-15? Noah Feldman [says]( the Second Amendment applies to all weapons that ordinary people carry on an ordinary basis for self-defense. AR-15s “are weapons of war — for, in fact, a well-regulated militia — not for ordinary people to carry for ordinary use,” he writes. The gun-death epidemic in the US can be broken down into the following categories: mass shootings, homicides, suicides and unintentional gun deaths. “Mass shootings and unintentional deaths make up the smallest percentage. In an average year, 50% to 60% of gun deaths are suicides; around 40% are homicides,” Dr. Megan Ranney, deputy dean at the Brown University School of Public Health, [told]( Sarah Green Carmichael last year. Maine, comparatively, has an extremely high rate of suicides: Maine does not have a red flag law, which would allow law enforcement to try and temporarily prevent someone in crisis from accessing guns. “Research shows that a majority of mass shooters exhibit warning signs before committing murder,” Bloomberg’s editorial board [writes](. The purported gunman in Lewiston is no different: 40-year-old Robert Card [reportedly]( has a history of mental health issues, spending two weeks at a mental health facility this summer after allegedly threatening to “shoot up” a military base. If we have rules and regulations in place that prevent the slaughtering of domesticated chickens, you’d think we’d be able to create some rules that could stop a gunman from slaughtering a bunch of people who chose to go bowling on a Wednesday night. It’s really not that big of an ask. Housing Horrors The other day I read this fascinating story by Mark Dent on [the economics of haunted houses](. I find it funny that most modern haunted houses aren’t actually in a house at all. Instead, a lot of them are constructed within a shuttered building of a suburban strip mall, similar the model Spirit Halloween [uses]( every September and October. But when setting up a haunted house, business owners need to consider building codes and budget constraints in order to generate a year's worth of revenue in less than two months. It’s not the best model, to say the least. But if you think it’s hard trying to find a haunted house, just try finding [a non-haunted one](. Justin Fox [says]( the standard metrics for homeownership obscure just how unlikely it has become for millennials to own a home in the US these days. Of all the 25-to-34-year-olds in the US, only 32.6% own homes, he writes. That’s down 20 percentage points from the late 1970s and almost 10 points since the mid-2000s: Similar to the haunted house situation, young folks are pushing off buying and choosing to rent instead. But even then, Bloomberg’s editorial board [says](, the cost of [renting]( has become too high. In New York City, most tenants are blowing the majority of their paycheck on rent: “Lifting restrictions on [converting office buildings]( into residences makes sense in the country’s biggest office market. So does adding more [small apartments]( that share common kitchens and other facilities,” the editors write. Mayor Eric Adams seems to understand this, but tiny policy tweaks won’t be enough to house the entire city (and the rats). “He shouldn’t stop fighting for what’s really needed. The rest of the country will be watching,” they conclude. Read [the whole thing](, and try not to get too spooked out. Telltale Charts Have you ever played [Connections]( by the New York Times? The premise is simple: You have to group words together that share a common theme. So let’s play a mini game right now: Apache. China Girl. Dance Fever. Friend. Goodfellas. Jackpot. Murder 8. What’s the connection? If you were to have asked me this yesterday, I’d have guessed they’re all [hyperpop groups]( or brands of tinned fish. But no. Andreas Kluth says they’re colorful street names for fentanyl ([free read](). Chinese drug traffickers produce the synthetic opioid and ship it directly to the US with fake labels, and the stuff is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. “The fentanyl crisis helps Beijing because it weakens the US. The epidemic started roughly a decade ago, and from the start the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, the second-largest in the world after America’s, played the leading role,” he writes. “Despite [the continuing war]( in the Middle East, most markets have been relatively [calm](. Stock exchanges have not plunged, while volatility appears manageable, indeed [ordinary](. If you were looking at just the markets (except for Israel’s), you might not even know there is a war on,” Tyler Cowen [writes](. What does that mean, exactly? Although stock market prices can’t always predict geopolitical crises, Tyler says they’re one of the best tools we have. Perhaps our investments are trying to send a message about what the future holds. Further Reading China’s [deep-sea mining business]( leaves America on the sidelines. — James Stavridis Morgan Stanley gets [a new CEO]( but misses an opportunity for a clean break. — Chris Hughes GE’s [shrinking phase]( is almost done. Next up will be acquisitions. — Brooke Sutherland The [latest casualty]( of fintech frothiness won’t be the last. — Lionel Laurent UAW strikers are celebrating today, but [Ford won](, too. — Liam Denning Mike Johnson is gonna need a lot of [on-the-job training](. — Jonathan Bernstein Unilever’s [new leader]( isn’t bringing enough pizazz to the boardroom. — Andrea Felsted Uh-oh: Stock-bond correlations [are positive]( again. — Jonathan Levin ICYMI SBF was worried about [employee chats](. Israel says [a key planner]( behind Oct. 7 is dead. USA Today ran some [sketchy articles](. Kickers This is the soccer world’s [LeBron James](. Living with [squalor syndrome]( is not pleasant. Gen Z [found out about]( Snoopy. A guide to the non-Taylor NFL [girlfriends](. Baked bean [innovations]( are on the rise. Notes: Please spill the beans and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. 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