As a compromise for keeping guns in the hands of the good guys maybe we make gun ownership something you have to actually go through a real application process for. Maybe there is a public hearing on it and we have a moment to challenge the status of the citizen applying. People need jobs, so perhaps the state could pay assistants to help you establish your reason for gun ownership, and they could also check on your gun and make sure it was secure. It is nothing any law abiding citizen would have any fear of. I am putting this here because I am honestly asking.
I want to be able to access guns as easy as mints at the drugstore counter, cuz I just want it, so there. Freedom means I get everything I want like the evil kid from Twilight Zone. Hmyeh!
You mean take a sensible approach, like just about every other country on the planet? Note: the "right" to own a gun is not tied to Americans' "freedom". That's a nonsense argument that is easily disprovable. In terms of actual freedoms enjoyed by its citizenry, the United States of America doesn't even crack the top ten of the Freedom Index.
Prove me wrong, @Lanzman. I live in a country where owning a firearm isn't a right, and by pretty much every objective measure we are a happier, healthier and freer society than the United States of America.
Sounds OK until a well-connected wifebeater in Shitsville, Mississippi tells his buddy who runs the hearing to ignore his ex-wife's objections and grant him enough permits for a small arsenal, and simultaneously to deny any permit his ex-wife asks for. Or until a local official in White's Haven, Montana decides that only people with the right skin color qualify. Some wiggle room and discretion in laws is OK, but too much discretion will always end up benefiting members of the good ole boy network in much of this country.
I hate to think what the ratio of guns to citizens is in The States vs. a little backwater country like mine. We made sweeping changes to gun legislation in NZ with relative ease because a) we don't have an entrenched gun culture - a devastating construct dragged down US history and b) the number of semis in circulation were in the tens of thousands. You make these sweeping changes in The States, what the hell do you do with the - what - billions of guns in circulation? I hope I'm exaggerating on that number. To say nothing of the black market that would emerge. At the core is the culture itself. What does the United States need to let it go / unmake it? Time? Nuke the south? Assurance from your neighbours we're not going to threaten your independence? On behalf of New Zealand, I assure all US citizens: we will NOT invade you. I suppose all that said, at the very least implementing sensible sane shit like registration and background checks is a start. . .
