PUBLIC POLICY THEORIES 2

Public Policy Theories

Public policies go through various stages before they become official policies. These
stages are agenda setting or building, policy formulation and adoption, implementation of policy,
and policy evaluation (Pulzl & Treib, 2017). Even though it is political leaders who ultimately
make decisions in most of these stages, the decisions that they make are usually influenced by
many factors and actors, including the public through opinion polls and interest groups. Various
public policy theories have been formulated to explain how public policies are made and the
various factors that influence the final policy that is made. The paper examines American gun
policy and the public policy theory that best explains the development of this policy.
Increased frequency of mass shootings in the United States over the past decade has made
gun policies to be one of the most hotly debated policies in the USA. Despite the urgency that
these shootings has created, the last major federal gun policy was passed in 2005. The Protection
of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act and Child Safety Lock Act, often abbreviated as PLCAA was
passed in 2005 during the administration of President George W. Bush (Smith-Walter et al.,
2016). The law made it illegal for licensed dealers and firearms manufacturers to be sued for
negligence any time their products were used to commit crimes.
In the formulation, implementation, and review of this policy, the best public policy
theory that explains its development is Group Theory. Group Theory holds that public policy is a
product of a struggle among various groups interested in the policy (Pulzl & Treib, 2017). These
groups influence government institutions to make policies that are of interest to them. The
groups are characterized by good relationship with decision makers, excellent social skills,

PUBLIC POLICY THEORIES 3
leadership, and human and financial resources (Pulzl & Treib, 2017). They achieve their goals
mainly through lobbying.
According to this theory, policies often reflect the interests of the group that is dominant.
In the case of PLCAA Act, the policy reflected the interests of National Rifle Association
(NRA), the dominant group in the gun policy debate. Throughout the 1990s, various interest
groups sought to have arms manufacturers face the same level of liability that tobacco
manufacturers face for use of their products. Groups that advocated for such policies included
the Americans for Gun Safety group (Smith-Walter et al., 2016). Fearing the likely impact of
such policy on their businesses, gun manufacturers and National Rifle Association (NRA)
embarked on efforts to thwart such proposals from becoming law. They drafted a legislation that
would provide them immunity from liability and lawsuits resulting from the use of guns that they
manufactured in criminal acts (Lacombe, 2019). The legislation was passed as PLCAA in 2005.
The passing of the legislation was made easy by the fact that Republicans were in control of both
the legislative and executive arms of the federal government. Despite intense opposition to the
legislation by various gun safety groups and their allied politicians the policy became law.
The development of the policy can, therefore, be viewed as a struggle between NRA and
gun safety groups such as Americans for Gun Safety. The NRA proved to be the dominant group
because it had excellent relations with influential policy makers in both Congress and the
presidency. Using these relationships, it was able to have a law that suits its interests to be
passed.
Apart from Group theory, Rational-choice theory can also be used to explain the policy
development process that led to enactment of PLCAA. Rational-choice theory holds that policy

PUBLIC POLICY THEORIES 4
makers make decisions that favor their self interests and not the interests of the whole nation
(Pulzl & Treib, 2017). Thus, policy makers will formulate and pass policies that help them
achieve their personal objectives instead of national objectives. According to this theory,
politicians are likely to enact laws that aide their political careers rather than laws that are good
for the nation.
This theory partly applies to the passing of PLCAA. The NRA has a membership of over
five million Americans (Lacombe, 2019). It also has significant financial resources at its disposal
which it uses to back candidates that support its policies. Passing laws favored by NRA,
therefore, helps politicians to get financial support during campaigns and votes from NRA
members. It cannot be ruled out that politicians who supported the PLCAA did so in the hope of
receiving financial and political backing of the NRA and allied groups.
Different theories can, therefore, be used to explain the policy development process that
led to the enactment of the PLCAA. However, the Group theory better explains the making of
this law because it was drafted by NRA and its development into federal law was basically a
struggle among various groups in which the NRA emerged as the victor.
Given the success of NRA in the passing of this legislation it is clear that stakeholders
such as interest groups prefer groups theory when pushing for various laws. It works better than
appealing to the self-interest of policy makers as proposed by the rational-choice theory.
Appealing to personal interests of policy makers will consume a lot of resources and may also be
hard identifying each of the interests of the policy makers.

PUBLIC POLICY THEORIES 5

References

Lacombe, M. J. (2019). The Political Weaponization of Gun Owners: The National Rifle
Association’s Cultivation, Dissemination, and Use of a Group Social Identity. The
Journal of Politics, 81(4), 1342-1356.
Pülzl, H., & Treib, O. (2017). Implementing public policy. In Handbook of public policy
analysis (pp. 115-134). Routledge.
Smith‐Walter, A., Peterson, H. L., Jones, M. D., & Nicole Reynolds Marshall, A. (2016). Gun
stories: How evidence shapes firearm policy in the United States. Politics &
Policy, 44(6), 1053-1088.