In my previous post, I pointed out that guns kill or injure over 100,000 Americans annually. In 2013, there were 73,505 nonfatal firearm injuries and 33,636 deaths due to "injury by firearms". This carnage is escalating and we need to stop it now.
I offer suggestions. They are just that: suggestions, ideas, talking points. I throw them on the table for debate. Maybe one of them will stimulate a better idea.
What convictions are behind these suggestions? Where do they come from?
Partly it is about responsibility. All of us, especially political leaders, have some responsibility to help correct this situation in which so many innocent lives are lost every year. Those who refuse to help, who actively resist change, are part of the problem.
Partly it is about fairness. If a segment of the public chooses to make firearms easily available to almost anyone, they should bear the cost and consequences of their choice. Gun advocates demand their “gun rights” but expect others to bear the costs. That needs to change.
Partly it is about the rationale for owning a gun. Guns can be entertaining. Target shooting requires skill and knowledge. Hunting is a sport enjoyed by many. Gun collecting is a hobby. Guns are used for personal defense. But people run into trouble when they talk about needing guns to protect themselves from the government should it become “tyrannical” (as defined by them). That is just not going to happen. Is your AR-15 going to stop a tank?
Gun control is about responsibility, fairness, and the rationale for owning a gun.
From a purely practical standpoint, the simple answer would be to ban guns in private hands. That isn’t going to happen, so the simple answer goes out the window. Preventing gun carnage will require a significant number of small actions, but they can all be done — if we really care about savings tens of thousands of lives.
Excuses To Do Nothing
“Your proposal wouldn’t have prevented this shooting, so it’s no good.” As Voltaire said, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” Many things that are not perfect are still useful and desirable. A regulation that is not perfect can still save lives.
“People are dead. Now’s not the time to talk about gun control.” The survivors of gun assaults say, “Yes it fucking is!” When your car runs out of gas, that is the time to discuss being out of gas — not when you have a full tank.
“I’ll need my assault weapons when the government declares martial law.” That excuse is ludicrous. I hope the people who say it don’t actually believe it. Anyone who thinks they can defeat the U.S. military with their personal gun collection needs mental health treatment — and perhaps a tour of an army base.
Gun advocates say, “Now is not the time to talk about gun control.” Shooting survivors say, “Yes it fucking is!”
The gun enthusiast’s motto: “I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands” is a classic straw man argument. No one wants to take guns from law-abiding citizens. The intent of gun control is to ensure that gun owners are qualified and competent, that they’re not violent criminals, not terrorists, not mentally ill, and that they’re old enough to act responsibly. Why should these reasons be controversial?
The Slippery Slope
Gun advocates claim that a new gun law is the beginning of a slippery slope. I like to think they’re right — a slippery slope to SANITY.
Is registering our vehicles with the Department of Motor Vehicles the beginning of a slippery slope to the government seizing our cars? Does requiring a license to drive a car take away our freedom to go places? Or do these regulations serve a useful purpose?
Gun control is the beginning of a slippery slope — to SANITY.
“If we allow the government to tell us what we can and can’t do with our guns then … (fill in the disaster of your choice).” This is paranoia. All proposed gun restrictions will be thoroughly debated before being implemented. The will of the majority will prevail. That is how democracy is supposed to work.
The Cost of Misuse
Misuse of motor vehicles has an associated financial cost: damage to property and injury to people. Should these expenses be borne by everyone or by operators of motor vehicles? If you don’t own a car, you don’t have to subsidize bad driving through costlier car insurance. The costs of misuse fall on those who own cars. If you don’t visit a national park, you don’t have to pay fees to maintain the park’s facilities. Visitors to the park do that. But when people are wounded by firearms, all citizens pay a cost — a half billion dollars a year — through higher medical bills and costlier health insurance.
Let’s have mandatory gun insurance to cover the cost of misusing guns. If you don’t own a car, you don’t subsidize bad drivers; if you don’t own a gun, you shouldn’t have to subsidize reckless gun owners.
If you don’t own a car, you don’t subsidize bad drivers; if you don’t own a gun, you shouldn’t have to subsidize reckless gun owners.
Expectations
You don’t expect to be granted a driver’s license without demonstrating that you know how to operate a motor vehicle. You don’t expect to be granted a pilot’s license without demonstrating that you know how to operate an airplane. Why do you expect to buy a firearm without demonstrating that you know anything about firearm safety and handling?
Universal Background Checks
What is the point of having background checks that only work some of the time? It’s like stepping into a boat that has a hole in the bottom. Would you feel better if the boat owner said, “Hey, it’s only one hole, and a small one at that.”?
Many states allow private gun sales with no background checks. That’s a big hole in the system. All gun sales should require a background check — no exceptions. If a gun owner sells a gun without running a background check and notifying police of the sale, that seller should be held partly liable for any damages done by the misuse of that gun.
Gun Registration
We need to keep track of guns for several reasons. An obvious reason is to prevent straw buyer purchases. We need to know when that gun is transferred to another person, whose hands it passes through, and what crime scene it ends up at. That kind of information can produce red flags and keep more guns from falling into criminal hands.
Potential Gun Owners Must
- Attend an all-day class on how to handle and operate a gun.
- Take and pass a written test.
- Take and pass a shooting range class.
- Take and pass mental and drug tests.
- Pass a rigorous background check for a criminal record or association with criminal or extremist groups.
Gun Permit
If you qualify to buy and own a gun, you’ll be eligible to purchase a photo-ID gun permit. If you violate gun laws the permit will be revoked and you won’t be able to legally buy or use a gun. Just like going to the DMV to obtain or renew a driver’s license, you have to pay a fee for the permit. Money collected from gun permit fees will be used to pay for administration of firearm rules and to mitigate the expenses caused by the misuse of guns.
Gun Owners Must
- Store the gun and its ammunition in a locked container.
- Have the police inspect the gun once per year to verify it is still in the registered owner’s possession.
- Re-take the class and exam periodically, such as every three to five years.
I’m tired of reading about toddlers shooting other toddlers and adults. There is no excuse for adults to be this careless with loaded guns.
Assault Weapons and Accessories
The argument for assault weapons is two-fold. They're fun to shoot, and gun owners will need them to fight the US military when martial law is declared.
The first justification (they’re fun) is not one that anyone should give their life to preserve. The second justification probably originated with people who watched Red Dawn too many times. Neither excuse warrants the casualties these weapons of war inflict on our society. Assault weapons must be banned from general use. Gun ranges could be exempt.
The argument for bump stocks is they convert a firearm that can shoot with a fair degree of accuracy into a weapon that can fire about 9 shots per second with little accuracy. A gun with a bump stock is a killing machine and nothing more. The upside is fully automatic weapons can be fun to shoot. The downside is some people have to die. Bump stocks should be illegal or should carry a sizeable license fee, just like fully automatic weapons do now.
The purpose for ghost guns is to allow people to violate the spirit of the law with impunity. Ghost guns should be illegal.
Liability
If gun owners don’t want restrictions on guns, then they must be liable, as a group, for the expense of having unregulated guns in our society. Gun-related expenses of funerals, hospital care, rehabilitation, etc. should be borne by the gun-owning population. This expense can be incorporated into a gun permit fee, a new tax on guns, or both.
Gun-related expenses of funerals, hospital care, rehab, etc. should be borne by the gun-owning population.
Postscript
I am a gun owner. I understand the attachment gun owners have for their guns. For some, gun collection is a great hobby. For some, like me, a gun is for personal protection. However, I’ve always said I would give up my gun in a heartbeat if I could bring back just one of those kids that died in their classroom.
To my readers: don’t kid yourselves, karma is real. What goes around comes around. Anyone who has a chance to save lives and chooses not to do so will sooner or later pay, in some unforeseen way, for their indifference. So I advise my readers: do the responsible thing, do the moral thing. The worst that can happen to you is you lose your gun. Right now, gun victims are losing their lives. Is your gun more important than a human life?
Is your gun more important than a human life?
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