A General Gun Control Plan
When talking about gun control, it gets really easy to get lost in pedantic terminology arguments or getting lost in a sort of ‘not all crime’ sea of pointing at different areas that need our attention, as if that means we can’t look at and address gun violence in a number of ways. To start, I’ve fired guns and enjoyed it. I know the difference between a clip and a magazine and I realized that a AR stands for Armalite, not Assault Rifles. Guns are fun, I get it. But it’s also pretty clear that changes need to be made to address rampant gun violence we see today. But before we talk about those changes, we need to realize that ‘gun violence’ can’t really be talked about as a monolithic entity in the same way that you can’t really have a good conversation about the treatments for cancer without getting into specific types of cancer their are. I’m certainly not a law enforcement expert, nor am I a firearms expert. Thus, please take these ideas with a grain of salt, and I appreciate any insight those who *do* have expertise in those areas have on my post and will try to adjust accordingly. I think we can do our best to silo gun violence in a few different ways: Accidental Discharge: Fortunately, studies show that the rate of accidental gun injuries are fairly low, and under slight but steady decline. Because of that, we can focus on other areas Suicide by Gun Owner Suicide by Children/Relatives of Gun Owners Domestic Violence Homicides Crime committed while using a firearm - (mugging, robbery, etc) Domestic Terrorism - School/Church/Nightclub/White Supremacist Shootings International Terrorism Please let me know if I forget any. These different problems have very very different causes and solutions, and pointing out that a solution to one won’t solve the other is pretty obvious. Next point - there’s no silver bullet that will magically reduce all the gun violence away. We will need a number of incremental changes that work to reduce those numbers as low as possible. People still die in car accidents - just far far less frequently as NTSB standards were implemented. 1: Require every new gun manufactured or imported into the United States require a biometric or rfid trigger lock system. This, combined with a voluntary buy back program, will (over time) severely reduce the number of children who commit suicide or domestic terrorist incidents with their parents or borrowed weapons. Of course, the effectiveness of this change will be minimal until unrestricted guns leave circulation. This is a long term plan. 2: Require a mental health screening for all new gun purchases from a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist. The problem with ‘background checks’ are that without committing a crime or engaging in behavior that will disqualify a person from gun ownership, there’s no way to detect a person with sociopathic or psychopathic behavior. Tying a professional’s ability to grant ownership permits to whether or not permittees subsequently commit crime will incentivize a thorough screening process. A therapist who grants a gun ownership permit to someone who later commits a gun crime will lose their ability to grant permits.
This will, similar to the above, reduce the number of gun owners committing self inflicted gun crime and domestic terrorist incidents. Likewise, people prone to domestic violence/homicidal tendencies will be screened as well. 3: Begin tracking ammunition purchases and implement maximum quotas outside of gun ranges - I know how much ammunition a person who spends time at the range goes through - lots, to keep your skills fresh. So, while at the range a person can buy any amount of ammunition - they just can’t take it home with them. Implement a federal marking scheme to allow law enforcement officials to track where ammunition was purchased and who purchased it, in addition to a registry on how much ammunition a person is taking home and using. If we do it for sudafed, we can do it for ammunition. 4. Implement strict liability laws with regards to improper weapon handling and storage - If weapon is stolen and proper precautions (gun safe, RFID tag, locked doors, etc) were not taken then a gun owner will be held financially or in some cases criminally liable for any and all crime committed with that weapon. If a parent leaves a weapon and its trigger lock out and it is then used in a school shooting or accidental discharge, the parent can be held culpable for that crime. However, if a criminal steals a weapon (But not its trigger lock) and then ‘hacks’ or disables the locking mechanism, since the owner did their due diligence they would not be held liable. Gun sales people who do not properly scrutinize purchasers can lose their license to sell firearms, and potentially be held financially liable for crimes committed if negligence can be shown. These changes, while still allowing most gun ownership and recreational gun use, will drive down gun violence in some of the most prevalent ways and establish lines of responsibility.
By no means are these changes perfect, and I’m sure industry experts may find issue that I’d love to hear discussed. Let me know what you think.
Note: Conservatives concerned with the cost of seeing a therapist? Perhaps single payer health care might be something worth looking into.