Sam_Stone:
I could get behind that. Because cops going to homes where there are guns and they think the owner may not surrender them easily sounds to me like a recipe for a whole lot of shootings. Those cops are going to be on high alert and trigger-happy. Now imagine them having to go door to door through inner city black neighborhoods.
This would be a really bad idea.
Here’s a proposal maybe everyone could get around: There are a lot of guns out there that are just sitting unwanted and unused. Say, a widower whose hunter husband died and now has a basement full of guns she doesn’t want. If you want to get those out of circulation, offer a voluntary purchase of guns at slightly higher than market value, on the condition that the person turning in the guns signs a paper saying that they will not buy a gun again, or maybe for 10 years or something. Maybe offer them an extra 10% for signing. Then those names can be put on the background check list.
Activist groups can then raise money to buy back guns in their community, and they can take forms around that sellers can sign to get their additional government bonus.
That would actually get lots of guns off the street, and it wouldn’t infringe on the rights of anyone. Reducing the stock of used guns would make them more expensive, which would further reduce demand. And the people who don’t turn their guns in would see their value go up, which might even get them on board with the program.
It would also be more effective in neighborhoods where people are poor and could use the money. These neighborhoods also generate a disproportionate number of gun crimes. Also, offer one-time amnesty if the guns are stolen or unregistered or whatever.
Personally, I strongly believe that if they were only sold to well qualified buyers in the first place, the supply to the black market would dry up very quickly.
Let people sell their guns if they want to, but don’t make it a law that they can’t have them, just they they cannot take them out of their house unless they have the proper permits.
Guns are too easy to get ahold of by anyone, whether with noble or nefarious intent. If it is made just a tiny bit harder to get a gun, then it is the outlaws who will encounter the difficulties, not the law abiding.