In the wake of the incident in Tuscon, I have come to believe (and I never thought I’d say this) that it needs to be harder for mentally unbalanced people to obtain guns, especially handguns. Right now in many states, anyone can go to a sporting goods store or gun store and purchase a firearm with only minimal paperwork. While this is convenient, it makes it too easy for an insane person planning to commit some kind of violence to obtain the guns. It also makes it too easy for someone with no idea what they’re doing (when it comes to gun safety) to obtain the gun.
What I would be in favor of is this. First of all: a gun safety test should be required. You have to take a test to drive a car, you should have to take one to get a gun. There should be two separate tests, one for rifles and one for handguns. The test would cover basic safety rules, as well as a very basic range test. This test could be taken at public or private shooting facilities and when completed, the individual would get a certification card and a confirmation of it on whatever digital field that BATFE-licensed retailers use when clearing someone for a gun purchase.
There is a lot of government potential for abuse of this kind of test making it too difficult to obtain the license: such as, making you drive five hours away to a range to take the test, or charging 200 dollars for it. This should not be allowed to happen. It should be required by federal law that these tests must be easily available (as easy as going to the local DMV) and cheap (15 dollars maybe.)
Second: I’d be in favor of mandatory background checks at gun shows. That’s right, the notorious “gun show loophole” they always talk about - yes, anyone can indeed go to a gun show and buy a gun in ten seconds with no paperwork or background check. I know, I’ve done it. I don’t see what’s wrong with requiring background checks at gun shows as long as they make it efficient to do, or else there would be absurdly long lines and it would be a huge pain in the ass for everyone. I’d be in favor of instituting some kind of rapid electronic system whereby all sellers at gun shows could easily (and at no cost) verify the background of the buyer on the spot. I am sure a way to do this electronically could be easily worked out.
Third: I don’t have a problem with there being a mandatory waiting period for handgun purchases. This could be 4 days, a week, or something like that. However, sometimes people really do need a pistol right away - what if someone is being stalked, threatened, or has an imminent need to make a trip to a particularly dangerous area of the state for some reason? These people shouldn’t have to be at risk because of the restriction, SO they should be able to go to the POLICE DEPARTMENT and get a waiver for the waiting period if they speak to an officer there who would listen to their situation and decide whether or not it’s appropriate. Again this should be a simple process, not a complicated one - it could be handled in 20 minutes. There aren’t enough people desperately needing handguns that police would be inundated with requests.
I’d agree to all of the above ON THE CONDITION THAT THE FOLLOWING ALSO HAPPEN:
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A complete and total repeal of all of the remnants of the “assault weapons ban”. This means no bullshit restrictions in states like California, New York, etc that you can’t own rifles with “barrel shrouds,” flash hiders, bayonet mounts, pistol grips, etc. This should be struck down at the federal level. Hardly anyone ever uses these weapons for anything criminal; they’re almost solely owned by hobbyists. The guns of choice for criminals are cheap handguns, not ARs and AKs and their many relatives. No more prohibitions on rifles that were once automatic but have been permanently converted to semi-automatic. In FRANCE you can buy an AK-47 converted from select fire to semi-only. You can’t do this in America because they have this law that if the rifle was ONCE automatic, it is ALWAYS automatic even if a gunsmith has permantly altered it to be semi-auto only. Do away with this ridiculous bullshit law.
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A complete and total repeal of the 1989 semi-automatic rifle import ban, a piece of protectionist bullshit on part of the Republican administration collaborating with gun makers like Smith and Wesson, but which has unbelievably remained in place for 30 years. This ban makes it almost impossible to import cheap semi-automatic rifles from other countries, and makes it mandatory that any rifle with foreign PARTS also has to have US-made parts. There are lots of incredible rifles from around the world that American shooters would love to own, but are prohibitively expensive because they’re insanely rare in America because of the damned import ban. A few examples: the SIG AMT/PE57, 550, genuine Russian made AK-47s and AK-74s (converted to semi-auto,) government surplus G3s and FALs (again converted to semi auto). If the import ban were struck down, thousands of them could be imported from Europe and could be had for a few hundred dollars instead of a few THOUSAND dollars.
OK? If those two concessions were made to the pro-gun side, I would be 100,000% fully on board with the first three gun control restrictions I listed.
Of course, it’s never, ever, ever going to happen. But I can daydream about it at least.