So the right wing thinks liberals are "bluffing" about their calls for action on guns:
Hillary called for “action” on guns in her tweet yesterday. Okay: what action? Has she proposed “action” that would have prevented yesterday’s shooting? California already has in place all of the “background check” laws and bans on “assault weapons” that Hillary called for last week. This is all posing and posturing, but sufficient for leftists to get through another day with their presumed moral superiority intact.
Here’s an idea: let’s call the left’s bluff on the Second Amendment. The left is wedded to the notion that there is no individual right to own guns because of the clause the 2nd Amendment that mentions “a well-regulated militia.”... But why not call for a serious militia program here in the U.S.—akin to the “Home Guard” Churchill set up in Britain in World War II?
Sure, except then the drooling right winger who wrote that goes on to imagine his fellow doughy gun-worshippers out patrolling schools, malls, and other public and private venues, with signs posted saying This facility protected by state militia members.
Well, how about doing that along, say, Swiss-type lines instead of the usual slipshod anarchic American way of treating anything military or gun related: i.e., do it, but regulate the hell out of it to ensure it's actually a, you know, well-regulated militia:
The vast majority of men between the ages of 20 and 30 are conscripted into the militia and undergo military training, including weapons training. The personal weapons of the militia are kept at home as part of the military obligations. However, it is generally not permitted to keep army-issued ammunition, but compatible ammunition purchased for privately owned guns is permitted. At the end of military service period the previously used gun can be converted to a privately owned gun after a weapon acquisition permit has been granted (fully automatic weapons will be rebuilt into semi-automatic ones)...
Generally prohibited arms are:
- Automatic firearms such as machine guns, etc....
In order to purchase most weapons, the purchaser must obtain a weapon acquisition permit... Swiss citizens over the age of 18 who are not psychiatrically disqualified nor identified as posing security problems, and who have a clean criminal record can request such a permit. Foreigners with the following citizenship are explicitly excluded from the right to possess weapons: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Algeria and Albania... The following information must be provided to the cantonal weapon bureau together with the weapon application form:
- valid official identification or passport copy
- residence address
- criminal record copy not older than 3 months
For each transfer of a weapon or an essential weapon component without weapons acquisition permit...a written contract must be concluded… The contract must include the following information:
- Family name, first name, birth date, residence address and signature of the person who sells the weapon or essential weapon component
- Family name, first name, birth date, residence address and signature of the person who purchases the weapon or an essential weapon component
- Kind of weapon, manufacturer or producer, label, caliber, weapon number, and date and place of transfer;
- Type and number of official identification of the person who acquires the weapon or the essential weapon component...
In order to purchase Ammunition the buyer must follows the same legal rules like for buying guns. The buyer can only buy munition for guns he/she is legally owning and must provide the following information to the seller...
- valid official identification or passport (and must be older than 18 who are not psychiatrically disqualified nor identified as posing security problems, and must not be a citizen of the following countries...: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Algeria and Albania)
- residence address
- criminal record copy not older than 3 months
- weapon acquisition permit not older than 2 years, or a weapon carrying permit not older than 5 years...
To carry a loaded firearm in public or outdoors (and for an individual who is a member of the militia carrying a firearm other than his Army-issue personal weapons off-duty), a person must have a … [gun carrying permit], which in most cases is issued only to private citizens working in occupations such as security....
Conditions for getting a Carrying Permit
There are three conditions:
- fulfilling the conditions for a buying permit (see section above)
- stating plausibly the need to carry firearms to protect oneself, other people, or real property from a specified danger
- passing an examination proving both weapon handling skills and knowledge regarding lawful use of the weapon...
Guns may be transported in public as long as an appropriate justification is present. This means to transport a gun in public, the following requirements apply:
- The ammunition must be separated from the gun, no ammunition in a magazine.
- The transport needs to be as direct as possible and needs a valid purpose:
- For courses or exercises hosted by marksmanship, hunting or military organisations,
- To an army warehouse and back,
- To show the gun to a friend or a possible buyer
- To and from a holder of a valid arms trade permit,
- To and from a specific event, e.g. gun shows.
Storage of military-issued ammunition
Prior to 2007 members of the Swiss Militia were supplied with 50-rounds of ammunition for their military weapon in a sealed ammo box that was regularly audited by the government. This was so that, in the case of an emergency, the militia could respond quickly. However, since 2007 this practice has been discontinued. Only 2,000 specialist militia members (who protect airports and other sites of particular sensitivity) are permitted to keep their military-issued ammunition at home. The rest of the militia get their ammunition from their military armory in the event of an emergency.
That’s what a well-regulated militia looks like.
Maybe that's why in 2014 Switzerland had a murder rate of 0.49 per 100,000 population, compared to the US's 4.5. Firearm-related death rate per 100,000: Switzerland 2.91; US 10.5.
In Canada, to transport a restricted firearm a form needs to be filled out for authorization and filed with the RCMP. It includes information such as the firearm’s license and registration number, the owner’s license number, the reason for transporting the firearm, the location it’s being transported from and to, the date and time of the requested transport, the route it will be transported by, etc. The rate of homicide involving firearms per 100,000 population in Canada is 0.5 (2009). Firearm-related death rate per 100,000: 2.22.
The kinds of regulations currently being proposed by the likes of Bernie Sanders -- expanded background checks, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill -- are just baby steps in the right direction.
Complete no-brainers for any kind of a sane society to protect itself. But it's just a start toward what really needs to be done.