Gun Control: An Honest Discussion

As I've done a number of times on potentially controversial entries, I'll start here with a Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be incendiary or offensive for the sake of being offensive. This entry is not unlike any other - an earnest inquiry from a mind grappling with certain issues. My intention is to have an honest, frank discussion about firearms, their problems and benefits, and the issue of gun control at large.

It's no secret, I'm somewhat of a liberal. Not a bleeding heart, not a tree-hugger, but when it comes to the "big" issues (ie, most social and economic issues), I tend to side more often with the left than the right. Not that the left is not without its own problems, but more often than not, that's where I stand.

That said, I feel I can speak pretty honestly from a more conservative viewpoint. The vast majority of my family is conservative (extremely conservative, in some cases), my parents are fairly middle-line, and the area I grew up in is about as smalltown conservative as they come... Not to generalize, but I can pretty well understand the conservative mindset.

(Also, let me say at the outset: as with most things, I want to keep this fairly intellectual and idealistic; I'm not looking for appeals to emotion, negative or positive. I lost my sister to a terrible gun tragedy, so for reasons I think you can understand, I'd rather not go down that road... not here on the Internet, anyway. Let's keep things civil and on-topic.)

So, without further ado, let's have at it...


Guns: What's the Deal?
Let's start with the basics: I'm not a gun guy. I've never owned one, do not ever plan to own one, and have held one/maybe two actual guns in my whole life, and even then fired only one shot (a pathetic attempt to hit a "skeet")... But do not think I am anti-gun (more on that below) - I simply do not desire one, and no one in my family does either. Just that simple.

Obviously, not everyone feels the same way. Some people take comfort in owning a gun. It provides them a feeling of protection which is sorely lacking from other defensive measures. Some people use them for hunting. Some people collect them. Some people just like them. And there's nothing wrong with that.

No serious solution to gun violence would involve banning guns. As gun owners are wont to say, "Guns don't people; people kill people." An oversimplification (the platitude fails to take into consideration accidental gun deaths), but there's truth to that.

What is the solution, then? Or rather, before we get ahead of ourselves, what's the problem? ...Is there a problem?

Perhaps surprisingly, I (and I suspect a lot of other people) would say that gun violence on the whole is not a big issue, this year's mass shootings notwithstanding. Most gun owners are law-abiding, responsible citizens, and (believe it or not) gun violence and violent crime in general are on the decline... and have been for some time. (Some fascinating statistics here.)

But let's not paint a false picture: though some are perhaps too quick to cry for strict restrictions or even outright banning, even in the best scenario things are not perfect. Guns by their very nature are machines of violence. That's not an attack, it's simply a fact: guns were invented for large scale, efficient killing... This is what irks me about those arguments which draw comparisons between gun control and drunk driving - ie, gun restrictions are akin to punishing sober drivers for the irresponsibility of drunk drivers. There's a world of difference! (First, really look at the analogy: drunk drivers are being compared to murderers. That right there should be evidence enough for you to abandon the analogy. Drunk driving deaths are terrible, but they are not intentional.)



Gun Control: What to Do
People have the right to own firearms. I get that. And I'm perfectly fine with that, but let's be honest - we can do better than this. Right? Isn't the point of any society to strive toward its ideals? And shouldn't we ideally live in a peaceful world? Naive, certainly, maybe unattainable, but it's a goal. Here's a thought exercise: picture your perfect world. Try not to be pessimistic or cynical - your perfect world... Are there guns? Is there death? If so, maybe you should aim a little higher.

I'm no politician, and I fully welcome any gun-owning readers to correct me, but what follows are some ideas/solutions that I think might help... Not solve (I don't know that we'll ever be without gun violence), but help.

(1) Obvious stuff - background checks, keeping guns out of the hands of convicted criminals/mentally ill, waiting periods, etc - should be mandatory.

(2) Graduated licensing... This is my alternative to an assault weapons ban. People cannot even agree on the term "assault weapon" - let's remove the semantics by introducing graduated licensing. Similar to graduated driver's licenses, a graduated gun owner's license would simply mean that the longer you've been a gun owner, the fewer restrictions you would have on future gun purchases. Say, for instance, that for the first two years you can only own a revolver (or some sort of low-capacity, long-reload weapon), then after that you can "graduate" to a rifle, and so on. Like I said, I'm not a gun guy, so the details could be hammered out by people with the proper experience, but I like the idea.

As anyone who's done his homework is fully aware, most mass shootings are done with legally purchased weapons. What a graduated license would help prevent (at least in theory) is the man who plots out a mass killing, and then goes about exacting his plan by legally buying up everything he needs. Is the plan perfect? Of course not - there is the obvious possibility of someone planning a mass killing and then waiting the requisite years rather than months - but the lengthy wait is a deterrant.

(3) Required training classes... Again, this could be similar to drivers' education. If "required" training for everyone is too much to ask, what if we decreased the wait time for those who've taken the training course? The whole idea behind this, again, is to keep guns out of the hands of those who are acting hastily, or at the very least, to slow them down.

(4) Annual certification... Basically, this whole list is modeled after the DMV, haha. I don't know what it takes to get a gun license, much less what it takes to prevent one from expiring. But I think an annual eye test and perhaps a practical (ie, you know how to properly disassemble/reassemble, clean, etc) might be a good idea. The idea for this one is to encourage responsible gun ownership, as I'm sure the vast majority of gun owners do these things already (though they probably substitute the shooting range for an eye exam).

(5) A universal ban on high-capacity, rapid-fire weapons, unless you've had requisite training/licensing... I realize this is extremely unlikely, which is why it's listed lower than the others, but I really don't understand why a civilian would need a military-grade weapon. I know hunters - you don't go hunting with an AR15. You can defend yourself just as well with something less conspicuous... So why do these need to bought by regular people? Simply because they can? Maybe a gun owner can explain this one to me because I just don't get it.


Concluding Thoughts
That's all I got. It's not much, but I really just wanted to open up a dialogue and put a few ideas out there. As always, I welcome criticism, corrections, and the further exchange of ideas. That's the wonderful thing about this country - we can talk about anything. Let's take advantage of that opportunity.

...And, lest you think me complete naive and short-sighted, a word to those who jump up and say, "Criminals will always find a way around the law" - Yes, you're absolutely right. If someone is bound and determined to hurt others, nothing will stop him. Even if guns never existed, he'd use a knife... he'd use a rock... he'd use his bare hands... and so on. Some people simply want to hurt people, and there's little we can do to stop that.

What we can do, however, is make it more difficult for them to hurt people. (Again, analogies: you can kill someone with a rock, certainly, but not nearly as easily, and not nearly as quickly. It's hard to commit a mass killing with a rock, or even a knife for that matter.) That's the whole reason we have laws - to restrict, deter, or otherwise slow those who would hurt or exploit others. Very little to do with those who follow the law.

Violence will continue to happen. I get that. But I don't think the solution is to simply throw up our hands and say, "Well - that's just the way it is!" We have to do something. And if we fail, then we try something else... and something else... and something else. Social well-being is up to us. It's our cross to bear. The whole point of this entry is not to go on some anti-gun rant because (as I hope you noticed) I'm really not anti-gun; I'm pro-responsibility. And what I hope we can do is foster an environment of responsibility and accountability, and hopefully that can help prevent future tragedies from happening.