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Every time you turn on the TV or Radio you hear of another shooting incident.
It is so common these days that we don’t even wait to get the details before moving on to the next story. The number of people being killed on a daily basis is appalling, but more appalling is that we have become de-sensitized to it.
We no longer care that a person died. We don’t even care when 100 people die.
Every day more and more guns are sold. The laws governing the license of a gun are supposed to be there to prevent the illegal use of guns and to make it harder for those who wish to purchase one.
The problem with that is it doesn’t address the guns being used by criminals.
Most criminals don’t care that you need a license to own a gun. They didn’t buy them legally so why would they bother getting a license for it.
If you consider that the guns being used during crimes are not purchased legally then how can we have so many guns available for criminals?
The problem has many sides to it. Guns are not stored as they should be and end up getting misused. Guns get sold or given away without records being kept of the transaction. When guns get confiscated during crimes they end up getting re-sold instead of being destroyed. Most gun owners will say that they are responsible adults and by forcing more rules on them it is a breach of their rights.
If guns are manufactured and sold then they can also be used and how they are used is open to debate. If no guns are made then no guns can be used. Sounds wonderful but totally bogus because the guns are not doing the killing it’s the people using them that are responsible for the deaths taking place. What we can do is reduce the amount of legal guns available for criminals and to do so will be very costly and will annoy lots of people.
If the price of the guns is pushed up to 5 or 6 times its current price then fewer guns will be sold. The ones already out there however need to be removed and destroyed. The extra money from the sale of guns should go towards more gun control. Just like a car needs to be licensed every year so should the guns.
Every weapon sold must be present during the application and renewal for proof of ownership and its ballistic characteristics checked before a new permit is made out. The records kept on a data base so all future use of the gun can be compared to a current record. Any weapon used in a shooting incident can then be tracked back to its owner and if no report of its loss is found then the owner of the weapon can be charged with negligence for failure to report its loss. The admin costs for this system can be covered in the purchase price and annual renewal fee.
Any person who truly wants to buy a gun will still be able to get one but at least they will think twice about leaving it lying around as it will cost them if they don’t keep track of it. The point of the exercise is to get rid of as many guns as possible. Any guns found that are not on record are to be destroyed immediately and the owner charged for the expense. If the gun is stolen the owner must prove all reasonable precautions were taken to prevent its theft. Not knowing your gun is missing is not a valid excuse. If you don’t know where it is then you clearly didn’t need it. They will then be charged with all crimes committed by that gun in future till it is found. This on its own will scare many future gun buyers from making the purchase. Anyone found with said gun is liable for all crimes committed using that weapon including previous crimes as the weapon should have been cleared for purchase.
Additionally the export of guns must be controlled to avoid the sale of weapons to countries that do not enforce the same strict controls.
This all seems so harsh and unfair but considering that a human life is just a slip of a finger away then it doesn’t sound so bad if you are on the receiving end.
The people we entrust with our safety such as cops and soldiers should also be subjected to the same rules. Remember a gun is just a tool and how it is used is not the manufacturers fault however this does not excuse them from all the responsibility.
You do not blame the knife manufacturer for your accidental stabbing as the knife was not able to do this on its own. You can however teach people to work safe in future or restrict access to those items deemed to be of a dangerous nature. There are exceptional cases where a weapon such as an automatic weapon can be purchased for civilian use. These individual cases will however have to be proven in court with costs prior to such a weapon being sold.
Personally I would love to have the biggest weapon out there just to incase there is a giant spider in my neighbors house behind the fridge on the other side of his giant SUV that needs to be eradicated. I however choose not to have one as my aim is poor and I may just end up shooting my dog by accident.
So before you go off on a screaming rant about your rights remember that the dead didn’t ask to be that way. If you do decide to buy a gun and jump through all the hoops just to get one then you will ultimately be responsible for everything that follows.
I just hope that you remember that all those illegal guns out there were once legally purchased by someone just like you.
