Congressman-elect Schneider,
I'd like to discuss with you an idea I've formed over the past week with regards to gun control. I believe I may have a solution that both reinforces the second amendment along with enforcing more responsibility on gun owners.
It seems that most of the weapons used in the mass shootings throughout this country are purchased legally. It also seems that at the end the shooter tends to take his own life leaving a bitter feeling as if justice can never be served. My solution would be to require the owner of any gun that's been determined by a court of law to be used in a homicide to pay each victim a stiff restitution payment whether the owner committed the crime or not. The amount of the restitution would be up for debate, but my initial thought was on the order of $1 million to $10 million. I also think the gun owner should be able to be charged with reckless manslaughter as the owner's recklessness would have been part of the cause for someone's death.
Now I realize that most gun owners could never be able to afford a restitution of $1 million for each victim, so to ensure these payments could be made each gun owner should be required to have insurance on their guns similar to how each car owner is required to insure their cars. This insurance would be to ensure restitution payments can be made. Now not only does the gun owner have skin in the game, but also a third-party insurance company. In this case the free market practically dictates who's responsible to own a gun where just like auto insurance someone who's been proven to not be responsible enough will not be able to obtain or afford the required insurance.
Now, I realize just because the law states you must have insurance many may ignore it just like many ignore the laws that require auto insurance. We can overcome this by requiring every gun sold in this country to be immediately registered with the federal government and require the owner to show proof of insurance before taking possession. If at any time the owner cancels an insurance policy the insurer must notify a reporting agency who will then have the responsibility to either determine that the gun is insured by a new insurer or seek to confiscate and charge the owner with owning a gun without insurance. To better ensure insurance coverage each insurance policy should be renewed no later than 30 days before the expiration of an existing plan and any cancellation requests should not take affect until 30 days after the request is made. The insurance company should notify the reporting agency if any policy falls inside this 30-day window so they have time to contact the owner before the policy completely lapses.
Finally, owning a gun and being in possession of a gun without an insurance policy should be a felony.