Gun debates, or utter lack thereof, in the wake of so many deaths (over 3317 since Newtown this morning) bother me for many reasons. One over-arching peeve is our problem with Obam-argoning (yes, I just made that up). When you compromise your best ideas before you begin, there is little reason to expect you'll get results.
Obviously we need background checks, no internet sales, no loopholes, limits to what weapons are reasonable, and magazines not made for mowing down the maximum number of people without pause.
Why aren't we talking about the stuff below the dragon snout?
I don't own guns. I grew up with guns in the house, and I'm a good shot. I enjoy target and skeet shooting on occasion. Why reasonable gun owners aren't trying hard to distance themselves from the paranoid fetishists is a mystery to me. Some ideas:
1) Gun owners insurance, with increasing premiums for every gun owned. I must have proof of insurance to get a license, and a license to purchase a firearm. I have mandatory car insurance, lest I run you over. If I have a newer car, or I have shown myself to drive like I think I'm in the General Lee, my premiums are quite high. I have mandatory home owners insurance lest some evil befall my home. If I live in a palace with a swimming pool in a wildfire zone on the edge of a cliff, my premiums are much higher than if I don't.
Insurance on each gun owned would protect against bad outcomes, and if I want to own more handguns than I can carry at once, and enough rifles and shotguns to truly be ready to slay the zombie hordes, my premiums should reflect that.
2) Gun owner licensing with frequent renewal provisions. Who hasn't cursed at the old guy driving 30 in a 55 who is a danger to himself and others because since his last drivers license renewal, he can no longer react quickly enough to use the accelerator, and is basically idling down the highway. We prevent convicted drunks from driving, and no one is screaming about their lost freedom. Gun owners should have to prove regularly that they, and the people who have access to their guns, are not ignorant, negligent sociopaths. Renew your qualifications every two years, please. Put a spot right next to organ donor on my driver's license that says I'm a qualified owner (National IDs that are actually useful across state lines for voting, medicine, banking, etc etc was in a great diary about Iceland not too long ago).
3) Gun and ammunition registries. Perhaps nothing drives the nuttery so crazy as the idea that someone will come and pry the guns from their hands. Reasonable people, even some knuckleheads, agree that people with mental health issues should not have access to mass murder. As Chris Rock says, bullet control is a really good idea. If I become homicidal or suicidal, it is in the best interest of everyone that I not have the tools to take you down with me. Ammunition registries won't prevent me from owning plenty of bullets, but considering we went to war in Iraq partly over knowing about all the nasty shit we sold them, this doesn't seem like a bad idea.
4) Gun liability fund. At every original transfer from a firearm maker to a distributor, we should collect monies, say 20% of the price, to go directly into a national trust fund that would be used in the inevitable event of tragedy to support victims of harm. Lost a love one to gun violence? You're eligible for a settlement from the fund, etc. Call it the 2nd Amendment - freedom isn't free fund, so people will love it.
5) Anonymous gun give/buy-backs everywhere, all the time. If you want to get rid of your firearms, all you should have to do is ... get rid of them. Especially if you or someone else isn't really supposed to have them! I'm talking to you, spouse of a violent felon who bought a gun anyway. Bring that piece down to the police station/fire station/courthouse/participating church without fear of reprisal.
6) Fact-based reality labeling. If you want to own a firearm, reading a label pointing out that statistics show you're far more likely to die from a loved one or yourself using it on you than someone who doesn't own one won't dissuade you, but it will, over time, start to get that message into the thicker skulls out there. Big freaking warning labels.
7) Eliminate stupid laws preventing research on how horrific guns are. Seriously. Freedom of ignorance is not in the Constitution. I doubt any of these laws would stand up to real scrutiny.
I'd really like to see politicos who are not among the insane create a framework of voluntary provisions that could eventually be adopted into law. We need a 2nd amendment organization grounded in reality to show some leadership and counter the gun-maker front groups that dominate discussion. Participate, and save on your gun insurance premiums. We may never eliminate mass shootings, but we can sure as hell do better than whining about clip size and background checks for 4 months, when we have a lot more common sense about cars and smokes and mesothelioma victims.
People can always break the laws if they like. That doesn't mean we shouldn't demand laws that aren't ineffectual half-measures. Thanks for reading.