Brad Plumer has an excellent article on ‘The economics of gun control.’ It discusses the overall cost to society and the ways that requiring regular liability insurance would help. It’s the best survey article I’ve seen on the subject so far. You should also look at the paper he points to by Duke’s Philip Cook and Georgetown’s Jens Ludwig. This paper analyzes the costs to society and gives a broad range of possibilities.
To get to a real solution for our society we’ll need to have insurance outside the box and address the two big no arguments–‘it won’t cover criminals’ and ‘it’s unconstitutional.’ All of these problems are solvable and this kind of journalism is where to start.