The United States and gun violence seems to connected in some strange way and it appears the answer is going to be one of the messiest situations that we have ever experienced. Guns are easy to get if you have the money and connections, the black and gray market is unregulated, and the retail market is relatively unchecked in many respects. There are people that currently have thousands of rounds of ammo in their houses with dozens of military grade weapons. You can accumulate as much as you can afford. No limits or controls anywhere. This has got to change if we are going to stop the random acts of mass killings that makes this country look like we are owned by the mafia.
In the 1990's I had a license to sell guns through the BATF and would sell guns to people I knew for sporting and hunting purposes. The license allowed me to get better pricing on ammo and guns. I did a lot of shooting and hunting and enjoyed burning some powder. But times do change and I got out of the business when I moved to Alabama and did not have access to the real estate to shoot that I had in Ohio. So, I got out of the business and gave up my license. I am also a Life Member of the NRA. There was a period of time that the liberal legislation was looking to make gun owner ship very tenuous, and I thought that the NRA could balance the equation and make for better legislation to control gun ownership. With the rise of the Tea Party, there is little worry about legislation of any type getting thru the US congress that would do anything constructive to get rid of gun ownership or access. I am still a member, but not active in any of their lobbying efforts. They are pretty effective as lobbyists, but I think they are way over the top with a lot of their scare tactics and dooms day scenarios and hate speech.
I still own some hunting guns and two revolvers. One revolver is a collectable that my Dad owned and I purchased a used revolver from a guy that needed money. The purchased revolver is an older police handgun and is a great shooting .38 that is kept for "protection". But I hope I never have to even get it out of the case. I have no need to ever shoot anybody and live with that the rest of my life... I just don't need that burden. Plus, it leaves a huge mess and you get to deal with the police and courts. No thanks.
With all this being said, I think I am qualified to chime in on the gun situation in the US. And it is a mess of giant proportion that is not easy to fix.
Congress is going to have to do some very difficult work to get this done. I do not think they have the political will to get it done. The breaking point has not occurred where we get the fix, but I think we can get a start.
I think two major changes are needed now:
1: If you own a gun and have anyone children in the house--by law--you must store the gun in a safe or other locked container that will not allow children access. Too many kids get a gun out and it is a toy to them, and someone ends up dead. This is the owners fault, put your guns away--lock them up. Your kid is dead from failure to control the weapon, you the parent and gun owner should go to jail. Tough love is badly needed here. I had a safe when I had kids in the house and we had no issues with gun getting used as toys. This is doable now and it really needs to be done.
2: Now the messy part. I really think if we are going to control the movement of guns and their use, we need to create a licensing system to monitor and control the purchase and sale of guns and ammo among individuals. You can still get guns and ammo, but you must have a license.
a. I think to make this really work, a government agency, that would be administered by the Feds, would control the licensing process. Similar to a passport, you would apply to get a license and you could be denied upon issues with previous crimes, mental stability, associations with terror groups, etc. This license could be revoked upon any problems with your mental state, drug abuse, scrapes with the law, selling to unlicensed individuals, etc. The licensee info would be in a national registry that would be updated with the latest available info. I think it would have to be renewed on a minimum of ever 3 years. The license would have to be kept up with your current location and also your purchasing and sales history. It would make keeping track of people that have too much ammo or are accumulating too many weapons or weapons of the wrong type much simpler. It would be basically big brother keeping an eye on you, a police state in many opinions, but you could keep guns and it would avoid confiscation. The NRA has paraded out the confiscation argument for years to scare the US into giving them money to fight this issue. This can avoid their biggest fear and the legal gun owners would re rewarded with keeping their guns. Easy no, necessary--yes.
b. Getting a licensing system in place would be messy and the political will I still think is lacking. But, the tide is turning and I think the political pressure can be exerted. We need an effective lobbying group to exert the pressure and I do not see them now. They may develop soon and I will join them when they do come to the fore front to fight this national massacre mess we are currently immersed.
c. How do we get compliance?? That is another messy part. Enforcement will lead to some people that are not licensed properly losing their guns and gun rights in the future. Just like a license suspension when driving, some people drive with no license and others do the work and get legal. Punishment is going to have to be jail times and massive fines to get some level of compliance. Can this stop the problem?? No, but it will control the legal sale of guns to individuals that are not suited to own guns. I think a part of the licensing will also control the transfer of guns among family members. There is currently no control in this area and this will really be hard to make happen, but it needs to be addressed. Some idiot kids, cousins, uncles, grandkids, ... do not need gun access.
Can the US get normal in terms of gun violent as compared to the other civilized countries ?? Yes, but as we are currently governed--NO. We need to get started on the change that is needed to bring gun violence under control, and we need to start now. Congress needs to get the legislation started without regard to their political futures, which would be imperiled. Change is hard, not impossible---let's go.
In the 1990's I had a license to sell guns through the BATF and would sell guns to people I knew for sporting and hunting purposes. The license allowed me to get better pricing on ammo and guns. I did a lot of shooting and hunting and enjoyed burning some powder. But times do change and I got out of the business when I moved to Alabama and did not have access to the real estate to shoot that I had in Ohio. So, I got out of the business and gave up my license. I am also a Life Member of the NRA. There was a period of time that the liberal legislation was looking to make gun owner ship very tenuous, and I thought that the NRA could balance the equation and make for better legislation to control gun ownership. With the rise of the Tea Party, there is little worry about legislation of any type getting thru the US congress that would do anything constructive to get rid of gun ownership or access. I am still a member, but not active in any of their lobbying efforts. They are pretty effective as lobbyists, but I think they are way over the top with a lot of their scare tactics and dooms day scenarios and hate speech.
I still own some hunting guns and two revolvers. One revolver is a collectable that my Dad owned and I purchased a used revolver from a guy that needed money. The purchased revolver is an older police handgun and is a great shooting .38 that is kept for "protection". But I hope I never have to even get it out of the case. I have no need to ever shoot anybody and live with that the rest of my life... I just don't need that burden. Plus, it leaves a huge mess and you get to deal with the police and courts. No thanks.
With all this being said, I think I am qualified to chime in on the gun situation in the US. And it is a mess of giant proportion that is not easy to fix.
Congress is going to have to do some very difficult work to get this done. I do not think they have the political will to get it done. The breaking point has not occurred where we get the fix, but I think we can get a start.
I think two major changes are needed now:
1: If you own a gun and have anyone children in the house--by law--you must store the gun in a safe or other locked container that will not allow children access. Too many kids get a gun out and it is a toy to them, and someone ends up dead. This is the owners fault, put your guns away--lock them up. Your kid is dead from failure to control the weapon, you the parent and gun owner should go to jail. Tough love is badly needed here. I had a safe when I had kids in the house and we had no issues with gun getting used as toys. This is doable now and it really needs to be done.
2: Now the messy part. I really think if we are going to control the movement of guns and their use, we need to create a licensing system to monitor and control the purchase and sale of guns and ammo among individuals. You can still get guns and ammo, but you must have a license.
a. I think to make this really work, a government agency, that would be administered by the Feds, would control the licensing process. Similar to a passport, you would apply to get a license and you could be denied upon issues with previous crimes, mental stability, associations with terror groups, etc. This license could be revoked upon any problems with your mental state, drug abuse, scrapes with the law, selling to unlicensed individuals, etc. The licensee info would be in a national registry that would be updated with the latest available info. I think it would have to be renewed on a minimum of ever 3 years. The license would have to be kept up with your current location and also your purchasing and sales history. It would make keeping track of people that have too much ammo or are accumulating too many weapons or weapons of the wrong type much simpler. It would be basically big brother keeping an eye on you, a police state in many opinions, but you could keep guns and it would avoid confiscation. The NRA has paraded out the confiscation argument for years to scare the US into giving them money to fight this issue. This can avoid their biggest fear and the legal gun owners would re rewarded with keeping their guns. Easy no, necessary--yes.
b. Getting a licensing system in place would be messy and the political will I still think is lacking. But, the tide is turning and I think the political pressure can be exerted. We need an effective lobbying group to exert the pressure and I do not see them now. They may develop soon and I will join them when they do come to the fore front to fight this national massacre mess we are currently immersed.
c. How do we get compliance?? That is another messy part. Enforcement will lead to some people that are not licensed properly losing their guns and gun rights in the future. Just like a license suspension when driving, some people drive with no license and others do the work and get legal. Punishment is going to have to be jail times and massive fines to get some level of compliance. Can this stop the problem?? No, but it will control the legal sale of guns to individuals that are not suited to own guns. I think a part of the licensing will also control the transfer of guns among family members. There is currently no control in this area and this will really be hard to make happen, but it needs to be addressed. Some idiot kids, cousins, uncles, grandkids, ... do not need gun access.
Can the US get normal in terms of gun violent as compared to the other civilized countries ?? Yes, but as we are currently governed--NO. We need to get started on the change that is needed to bring gun violence under control, and we need to start now. Congress needs to get the legislation started without regard to their political futures, which would be imperiled. Change is hard, not impossible---let's go.
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