It's time to make a fringe conspiracy-theorists' nightmare a reality! Let's ban ammo! (Sort of)
Since I don't post just to offend people, I decided to take out the line that people found so offensive. I'd be interested in hearing any substantive arguments against my proposals for regulating the right to keep and bear arms so that it's not a net negative for our society.
Substance below the fold.
One argument often used against gun regulation is that it's just too late: there are so many guns floating around that anyone who wants one illegally can just get one on the black market. Fortunately, though, you don't have to take people's guns to make them harmless; you just have to deny them the ammunition to fire in them. And unlike guns that can last for hundreds of years, ammunition gets used right up. If you restrict the sale of ammunition to licensed gun owners and licensed gun dealers, and make manufacturers have a strict audit trail for all that they make, you can greatly reduce people's ability to shoot their illegally owned weapons. After all, once you limit legitimate gun owners to a few rounds per year, they're going to hoard them rather than sell them on the black market to criminals.
Make all firing ranges be gun clubs with use restricted to members and members restricted to licensed gun owners. People can buy as much ammo as they want at the gun club/firing range, but they have to shoot it all there the day they buy it. Then they can practice as much as they want.
Eliminate 'gun shows' with guns for sale, and restrict sale of guns to licensed gun stores. Restrict sale of ammo there too. Every licensed gun owner can buy five rounds of ammunition when they buy a gun. If they want more, they have to show a letter from the police certifying that their gun was fired in self-defense. Any other ammo they want to fire has to be fired at a firing range club or while hunting.
Restrict hunting licenses to people who have a gun license and own a long arm made for hunting (not an assault gun). Restrict sale of ammunition for hunting guns to gun stores located in areas where hunting is legal (since you would have to go there anyway to use it), and to customers with hunting licenses. I'll leave it up to the hunters to determine what's a reasonable amount to be able to buy for one hunting trip-- five, ten, twenty, but not a hundred.
Require ammunition manufacturers to have an annually audited record proving that all the ammunition they make has been sold either to a licensed US gun store, or to a government. Ban the import of ammunition.
Require anyone who wants to practice the hobby of using military-style weapons to do so either by using paint guns, or by joining the National Guard. For all I care, make it a right to join the National Guard, regardless of how many we "need," but dependent upon one's ability to qualify for a gun license.
Make gun ownership contingent on getting a gun license. Make getting a license at least as difficult as getting a drivers license, and limit licenses to people with no history of schizophrenia or violent crime. Better yet, make training and vetting license applicants a function of the local police, and have them screen out applicants not only on those criteria, but also based on their well-honed street sense for who's dangerous and who's not.
Make people under twenty-one use firearms under the supervision of a licensed instructor, at a firing range club.
This still leaves the problem of gun owners killing themselves, and the children of gun owners killing themselves or each other. Maybe you could require guns to have the kind of fingerprint unlock feature that already seems to be working quite well for iPhones. Isn't there a place where a non-trigger-finger is always placed when holding the gun in firing position, where a fingerprint sensor could be built in? This doesn't solve the problem of people killing themselves, but our society doesn't keep us from killing ourselves with tobacco or alcohol either. There's plenty of good research on how much owning a gun increases your chances of dying by suicide, so make a summary of it part of the qualifying course for a gun license, and let people take that risk if they want to.