The biggest problem America has is it can’t discuss gun control de novo, and we already have an insane amount of guns inside the country.
If we adopted a stricter licensing regime, focused more along what I consider “common sense” European lines like you find in the Scandinavian countries or etc, I think that’d be perfectly fine. I don’t have a problem with someone demonstrating competency to own a firearm anymore than I have a problem with them doing the same to drive a car. But the problem is, there are so many guns present now this gun control regime would not significantly impede access.
The gun involved in this shooting might not pass a psychological fitness exam to get such a license, but his mom already had guns that he obviously had no problem taking. So while I think European licensing regimes are reasonable and even desirable, something has to be done in addition to that licensing regime to deal with our current guns. I think gun storage laws would do the trick
Personally I’d say we have to get serious about gun storage. Basically:
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All guns must be stored in a locked safe other than a single weapon you can have registered as a “home defense weapon.” This weapon can be a pump-action shotgun with a maximum capacity of four shells, double-barreled shotgun or single shot shotgun, or it can be a revolver. You can only store it outside the safe while you are physically present at the residence.
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All ammunition purchases must be regulated. The individual licensing regime I mentioned has to come into play. You should require a license for each gun you own and the “master gun owner license.” You must present you owner license when buying ammunition and the specific firearm license, the specific firearm license must match the ammunition you are buying. So no buying a box of .357 rounds if the only firearm you are licensed to own is a .22LR target pistol.
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Ammunition storage requirements are that you must not have any ammunition not under lock and key in a certified gun safe. Aside from the rounds in your home defense weapon. With the home defense weapon, if it is a revolver you are not permitted to store extra ammunition outside the safe. If it is a single shot or double barrel shotgun you may store a maximum of 4 extra rounds. If it is a pump action shotgun you may not store extra rounds outside the safe.
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Penalties for violating the storage requirements (firearm or ammo) will be a very large fine on first offense, and a six month period during which you may not legally transport any of your firearms and any carry license you have is suspended one year. A second offense is a larger fine, impoundment of all your firearms with a court or police authority for one year, and all licenses to own or carry are revoked. You must satisfy various educational requirements relating to gun storage to get your ownership license back, and your carry license(s) may only be returned if you can convince a review board you deserve one. Third offense is permanent forfeiture of all owned firearms, and a lifetime prohibition on firearm ownership.
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If any of your weapons are ever found in the possession of another person, that is an offense equivalent to a third strike storage offense, and you will have a permanent forfeiture of all firearms and loss of right to own any firearms. The only exceptions will be theft of the weapon from your locked safe, that has been properly reported to police or certain “extraordinary circumstances.” (Basically a person uses compulsion of some sort to force you to give them one of your weapons, ex. they brandish a knife at you or etc.) Further, if any of your weapons are used in a crime and that weapon was not stolen from you or acquired through some extraordinary circumstance you will be criminally liable as if you actually participated in the crime the gun was involved in.
Over time, I think such storage laws would “fix” the gun supply problem. America would become more like other countries, guns are available but they’re a bitch to own bureaucratically. So only people that really want a gun will have them. The licensing process itself will do a decent job of making sure those people aren’t the sort we don’t want to have guns in the first place. Guns combined with the passions of young men are a disaster, for example, and the licensing requirements should be significantly higher for young men. I’d even go as far to say young men should only be permitted to own long rifles or shotguns and should only be permitted to use them as hunting weapons and should be barred from even a self defense weapon until they reach a certain age.
The day after such laws passed, they would not have significant impact. But over time, as more people grow up under such laws, most young people aside from avid hunters won’t bother getting guns. A few collectors will emerge and etc, but that’s fine. Make getting a license to own guns about as hard as it is to deal with the DMV (even my proposals are not any more onerous than the process of moving to a new State, and having to register your vehicle, get a new driver’s license, get a new title in your new state etc) and casual gun buyers will evaporate.
With the storage laws, a lot of the “undesirables” will slowly lose their guns. When police show up at a house for various calls (drug possession, domestic violence etc) the improper storage that goes along with people doing those things will result in them losing the guns they have. A few nationally covered cases of gun owners who chose not to follow the law, and their gun was taken by a relative and used in a serious crime, and the gun owner being prosecuted for that crime as if he were an accomplice will also result in even many of the most foolish gun owners getting serious about gun storage.