In light of the recent access if gun violence, I thought I could present a few gun control ideas that I think could be reasonable to implement. To begin: I don’t want to take your guns. I know hunting and sport shooting are very important hobbies to some, and I can see some merit to owning guns for personal protection. I do find it hilarious any time someone says guns are to protect from a tyrannical government, because our government happens to have tanks and jets which might make your guns rather ineffective. Additionally, none of my musings below discuss restricting the types or features of weapons that should be available for ownership. While I think changes in that really should be made, I understand that that is likely a much more difficult fight than what I have proposed below.
So yes, if you are able to operate, store, and maintain a gun safely, and you do not have any personal, psychological, or medical instabilities that could affect your ability to use, maintain, and store a weapon, then you should be allowed to do so. I hope that the items outlined here would only work to ensure that guns are possessed by those who are able to use them properly. I’ll likely order these from reasonable recommendations to crazy hippie liberal dreams, but my point is that any of the items below may help curb gun violence.
1) Required licensing to purchase, own, and/or operate weapon
It seems reasonable to me that anyone wishing to own a gun must first show prove some level of proficiency in all aspects of owning a gun (operating, servicing, transporting, storing, etc). Illinois’s Firearm Owners ID program is really my basis for this thought. It seems crazy to me that no such license is required to purchase a weapon in Texas, though there are licenses for carrying a weapon here. Requiring owners to show they are able to safely own a weapon may help reduce accidents involving guns, while helping ensure only qualified individuals are able to own guns. To take things an extra step, a renewal requirement for these licenses could ensure that gun owners remain properly trained.
2) Universal background checks for all sales transactions.
This seems like another no brainier to me. It seems obvious that we do not want those with a criminal record to own firearms, nor would we want those with mental disabilities that may affect their judgement on operating a weapon. We already check for these with gun retailers, but that still leaves peer-to-peer sales and gun show sales without this regulation. Requiring these checks for all transactions again helps to ensure that only the able to own a gun safely are able to do so. For peer-to-peer sales, maybe we can set up a system such that firearms are first brought to police stations or gun dealers, which may already have the infrastructure needed to run the relevant checks.
3) Firearm Owner Registry
Once we ensure only qualified individuals can own weapons, then why not create a database that associates an individual with their owned weapons? If nothing else, such a database could be helpful if a weapon was ever stolen. Tracking a weapon from manufacture to end user may help investigators find where/how weapons go missing. It could prove helpful in identifying individuals that may have been able to purchase weapons at one time but now see themselves in a situation where they are unable to own these weapons responsibly. Additionally, if individuals want to own guns to protect their families and communities, a registry such as this could potentially be used by law inforcement in case they are needing assistance in a particularly dangerous case. This may sound a little crazy to some, but if we are going to have a well-regulated militia, it seems only logical to build up a roster of members and an inventory.
4) Extra training for owners (especially concealed carry)
Since I’m emphasizing an owner’s ability to maintain their weapon, we should provide more resources to those seeking additional training in the use, storage, and maintenance of their weapons. Those with concealed/open carry permits should also have training in dealing with armed assailants, de-escalation, and other items that may be helpful if they ever need to use their weapon to address a situation. If anything, these individuals should be trained and held responsible as if they were members of a police department.
Will these stop all acts of gun violence? No. Will they do anything to address those that obtain weapons illegally? Not necessarily. Do any of these address home made weapons – which may become now common as 3d printers and other home manufacturing devices improve? Absolutely not. But, could these policies make it a little harder for unqualified people to obtain weapons, while also ensuring all gun owners remained eligible to own their weapons? I think so. In the end, owning and using a gun should be somewhat similar to owning a car: regular aptitude tests to maintain a license, regulated guns in general to ensure they meet safety standards, and defined policies/penalties if weapons are every used inappropriately.
Other solutions?
Is this the only way to address violence in society? Absolutely not! Let’s have more funding to police departments so that they can have better trained officers and more personnel. Let’s have more money to mental health programs that address conflict resolution, anger management, and depression. Let’s find ways to build a society that has less economic inequality. Let’s reduce the social and political tribalism, such that every issue isn’t me and my infinitely surperior allies versus the iddiotic scum that think things should be ever so slightly different. Let’s find ways to share love towards our brethren rather than have. All of these would help generally make society better in a million other ways, but they seem a whole lot more complex and less obtainable than what I had outlined above.
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