The internet has been on fire since the Newtown shooting. “Should guns be banned?” “Should they not?” “The NRA is whack” “The NRA is just defending the rights we have as Americans.” It’s getting to the point where we are all trying to point the finger away from ourselves and place the blame on someone or something else. And I am annoyed.
The guns are not the problem; the irresponsible people in possession of them are.
I have never known an inanimate object to kill someone of its own volition. There usually has to be an outside force for that object to cause harm. (Thank you Newton for your laws of motion)
Before people get all in my face about falling rocks killing people, there is an outside force – gravity – at work on those falling rocks. Let’s face it gravity wants to crush us all, but that is a different rant.
So, if I were in charge of the world, how would I go about the whole gun control issue? Well, I’m glad you asked.
The process to own a gun should be similar to the process to obtain the other lethal weapon that many of us own. I’m talking about our driving our cars and the licenses to drive them.
In 2010 there were 32,885 traffic related deaths in the US. And in the same year there were 31,672 gun related deaths in the US – with 19,392 of them being suicides. (Gun data taken from http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states and traffic data from http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811630.pdf)
We don’t just give a kid without a driver’s license the keys to our cars. They have to first obtain a driver’s permit – something that will allow them to drive while being supervised. Parents teach their children to drive, then children go through a driver’s education program, and finally they get their license. And every 3-5 years that child will have to renew their license and prove that they are still competent to drive.
I believe that in order to own a gun a person must undergo gun safety and gun maintenance courses BEFORE they can purchase a gun, like we have to go through driver’s ed to drive a car independently. A person must submit to a mental health screening to acquire their permit to purchase, just as we must submit to a vision screening when we get our driver’s license. Granted, the screening should be done by a professional, and the results (other than the stamp of approval or denial) should remain private. Lastly like we have to renew our driver’s license, we would have to renew our gun permits by submitting to a test over gun safety and another mental health screening.
Next we would have to look at how the guns are stored. At minimum, the ammunition should be stored in a locked safe. Preferably the guns would be locked as well. The simple act of locking up the guns would have saved many lives in Newtown. If the shooter couldn’t have gotten to them, he wouldn’t have been able to use them. I am perfectly okay with making laws and requirements about how guns are stored.
I really think that the rights guaranteed to us in the constitution and the Bill of Rights are important for us to maintain. I seriously think people need to stop blaming guns and video game violence for the problems. Rather than fighting about gun control we should put our effort and energy into improving our mental health care system in this country. Because it’s not guns that kill people, it’s the person who doesn’t value human life behind the gun that kills them. Let’s focus on the people behind the guns, and what we can do for them before they get to the point where they pull the trigger.
The guns are not the problem; the irresponsible people in possession of them are.
I have never known an inanimate object to kill someone of its own volition. There usually has to be an outside force for that object to cause harm. (Thank you Newton for your laws of motion)
Before people get all in my face about falling rocks killing people, there is an outside force – gravity – at work on those falling rocks. Let’s face it gravity wants to crush us all, but that is a different rant.
So, if I were in charge of the world, how would I go about the whole gun control issue? Well, I’m glad you asked.
The process to own a gun should be similar to the process to obtain the other lethal weapon that many of us own. I’m talking about our driving our cars and the licenses to drive them.
In 2010 there were 32,885 traffic related deaths in the US. And in the same year there were 31,672 gun related deaths in the US – with 19,392 of them being suicides. (Gun data taken from http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states and traffic data from http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811630.pdf)
We don’t just give a kid without a driver’s license the keys to our cars. They have to first obtain a driver’s permit – something that will allow them to drive while being supervised. Parents teach their children to drive, then children go through a driver’s education program, and finally they get their license. And every 3-5 years that child will have to renew their license and prove that they are still competent to drive.
I believe that in order to own a gun a person must undergo gun safety and gun maintenance courses BEFORE they can purchase a gun, like we have to go through driver’s ed to drive a car independently. A person must submit to a mental health screening to acquire their permit to purchase, just as we must submit to a vision screening when we get our driver’s license. Granted, the screening should be done by a professional, and the results (other than the stamp of approval or denial) should remain private. Lastly like we have to renew our driver’s license, we would have to renew our gun permits by submitting to a test over gun safety and another mental health screening.
Next we would have to look at how the guns are stored. At minimum, the ammunition should be stored in a locked safe. Preferably the guns would be locked as well. The simple act of locking up the guns would have saved many lives in Newtown. If the shooter couldn’t have gotten to them, he wouldn’t have been able to use them. I am perfectly okay with making laws and requirements about how guns are stored.
I really think that the rights guaranteed to us in the constitution and the Bill of Rights are important for us to maintain. I seriously think people need to stop blaming guns and video game violence for the problems. Rather than fighting about gun control we should put our effort and energy into improving our mental health care system in this country. Because it’s not guns that kill people, it’s the person who doesn’t value human life behind the gun that kills them. Let’s focus on the people behind the guns, and what we can do for them before they get to the point where they pull the trigger.
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