Cars are dangerous instrumentalities. We register our cars. We pass a driving test to drive this inherently dangerous thing.
We should demand that each and every gun in America be registered. We should demand that each and every gun owner pass a mental fitness test and a rigorous test as to a gun's usage.
Unlike cars, however, we should demand that any person wishing to own more than one gun, PROVE their need!
And, in my plan, anyone not registering all their guns and taking the required tests would be guilty of a criminal act subject to jail time.
Of course, law abiding citizens would want to comply and seek compliance. But, criminals and gun nuts (aka criminals) would forego compliance. Give the coppers another chance to lock these folks up.
Perhaps we might ultimately realize that gun ownership is counterproductive in our society. Then, only criminals and gun nuts will own guns.
Almost all other civilized countries in the world have gotten their arms around gun violence. Shootings in Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have annual shootings of people in the the low two digit range while we have over 30,000. Some like Australia historically had a gun heritage similar to our own (think Wild West). But, when they experienced a nut case going off the rails and shooting up a bunch of people, they got together and realized they could not keep going on this way. Mass ownership of guns in Australia is a thing of the past. New Zealand recently did the same thing. It is not unusual in the UK for instance to be in Southeastern England to have the BBC report a shooting (not a killing) that occured in Scotland, such is the uniqueness of gun violence there. Here, we don't even hear of a killing by a gun being reported in the next neighborhood over.
The time has come for all people, gun owners and non gun owners to demand action.
Ultimately, we should just ban guns...totally....except for cops and military.
For those who argue, guns don't kill people, people kill people, I would argue its a lot easier to ban guns than people. If people want to kill others, let them do it the old fashion way, with fists and stones. We would have a lot fewer mass killings!
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