A Modest Proposal to Reduce Gun Violence

[_Analytics]

Consider the following proposal that allows law-abiding citizens to be as well-armed as they’d like to be, but holds them responsible for what they do with the guns they possess.

Gun Owners Responsibility Enforcement (GORE) Act

1. Every gun in the United States must have a serial number and be registered with the state or federal government.
   
2. It would be a crime to possess an unregistered weapon. The punishment if caught would be confiscation of the weapon and a fine.
   
3. You may not sell or give a gun to somebody without them first passing a background check, and then transferring the registration to them.
   
4. If a gun registered to you is used to commit a felony, you are an accomplice to the crime. For example, if somebody used a gun registered to you to rob a convenience store, you’d be equally guilty of robbing the store as the guy who held it.

Note that these laws are all about responsibility. If you are a gun trafficker at gun shows, you would be required to do the responsible thing of verifying that you aren’t arming criminals. Gun owners would be held responsible for what their “tools” are used for.

In words that ldsfaqs might understand, I’m not that concerned about rednecks in Tennessee who buy guns to shoot at beer bottles. In contrast, I’m more worried about people in Tennessee who sell guns to Memphis gang members. If the GORE act was in place, unregistered guns would quickly become an increasingly rare and valued commodity that kids in gangs would have a harder and harder time acquiring. Law-abiding citizens with registered guns would be very careful to ensure that their weapons don’t make it into the hands of criminals. These things would make it much harder for criminals to acquire guns, which in turn would reduce gun crime.

[_ldsfaqs]

Analytics.... Hate to break it to you, but law abiding citizens who pass background checks are not going around selling guns to the criminal underground.

And the extremely rare instance it happens, they are shut down quick.
Nearly all criminal underground sales are done through stolen guns or otherwise.
People that do trade in guns are not the "kinds" of people who sale to lowlifes.

I also don't believe in gun "registration". It's only one step away from confiscation, prison, and death. The government doesn't NEED to know your private business.

Further, your gun-show argument is flawed. Almost EVERYONE that sales guns at gun shows are ALREADY Registered Firearms dealers. And the few that aren't are collectors, hand-made gun makers, etc. They are not the kinds of people who sale to criminals. And the kind that would sale to criminals do not sale their guns at gun shows. There is no "gun show loophole" that has ANY sort of significant impact on firearms crimes.

Anyway, while I DO understand the reasoning you propose Analytics, it simply goes to far, and more importantly entirely ignores the actual CAUSES of gun crime.
LOCAL LAW background checks, LOCAL HEALTH mental health checks I'm all for.
More importantly, the real cause of the gun crime problem is not guns, it's liberals.
Because liberals have made "punishment" "vacations", not something to never want to go and experience. Nearly ALL gun crime is committed by repeat offenders, men who already have long records. There are no "consequences" anymore for committing a crime, especially in big cities where it's the worst.

If you want to solve the "gun problem".... Actually punish people again for being bad.

You are trying to attack the TOOLS of crime, rather than the actual causes, let alone the symptoms.

[_honorentheos]

Analytics.... Hate to break it to you, but law abiding citizens who pass background checks are not going around selling guns to the criminal underground.

Actually, straw buyers are one of the most common ways for those who can't pass a background check to circumvent the law and get a gun.

See this Frontline article, for example. Your idea that gun thefts are the most common way criminals get guns is a common but mistaken belief.

Analytics' proposal is interesting. I'd add in requiring gun insurance and gun safety training similar to Utah's hunter's safety requirements. Both are about responsible gun ownership and with insurance, we would be letting markets weigh in on the risk involved with a particular gun type or user.

Clearly, Analytics is not attacking the TOOL. His proposal is aimed at owners and asking for a higher level of responsibility.

[_Kittens_and_Jesus]

Analytics.... Hate to break it to you, but law abiding citizens who pass background checks are not going around selling guns to the criminal underground.

You don't live in Utah, do you?

I bought my one and only gun from some guy on KSL.com.

We met in a parking lot in Provo and I bought a gun off him there with cash and no questions asked.

It was perfectly legal as far as I know and as far as he knew I might have been a deranged violent felon.

You don't see a problem with that?

[_MeDotOrg]

More importantly, the real cause of the gun crime problem is not guns, it's liberals.
Because liberals have made "punishment" "vacations", not something to never want to go and experience. Nearly ALL gun crime is committed by repeat offenders, men who already have long records. There are no "consequences" anymore for committing a crime, especially in big cities where it's the worst.

Please give me an example of another country that has solved the problem of gun violence with stricter sentencing and tougher jail conditions.

[_Kevin Graham]

Analytics.... Hate to break it to you, but law abiding citizens who pass background checks are not going around selling guns to the criminal underground.

On the contrary, it happens all the time. I work with quite a few folks who are very much "gun fanatics." They've never been convicted of a crime or else they wouldn't be working with our company, and as far as I can tell, they are law abiding citizens. However, the thing they love to talk about day in and day out, is guns. Not just shooting guns out in the fields, but also the kinds of deals they can get on guns buying them from so and so. It doesn't seem like these guys can ever get enough of these guns. One guy was bragging last week how he purchased a Desert Eagle .50 from a former co-worker for just $400, indicating that he took advantage of a guy who was probably desperate for money. He said he then turned around and sold it for $600 to a "friend of a friend."

You folks have no idea how these guns are constantly circulated and easily end up in the hands of criminals or in the hands of folks who have yet to commit crimes. There is no "honor system" where only the "law abiding" class refuse to trade or sell with the "criminal" class. Virtually everyone is a potential criminal, or just someone who is inexperienced and/or irresponsible with a firearm.

[_EAllusion]

Please give me an example of another country that has solved the problem of gun violence with stricter sentencing and tougher jail conditions.

Our insanely high incarceration rate is a function of the drug war and long mandatory minimums for relatively minor crimes mostly surrounding the drug war. I think referencing it in this context is a non-sequiter.

[_Analytics]

Analytics.... Hate to break it to you, but law abiding citizens who pass background checks are not going around selling guns to the criminal underground.

And the extremely rare instance it happens, they are shut down quick.
Nearly all criminal underground sales are done through stolen guns or otherwise.
People that do trade in guns are not the "kinds" of people who sale to lowlifes.

Let's say that in the United States, there are x-million guns in the United States owned by people who should not own them because they are criminals or mentaly unstable. You are telling me that the way nearly all of these guns were transfered from law-abiding citizens to the criminal underground is because they were stolen. For the sake of argument, let's say that's true.

What does this imply? It implies that gun owners are doing a spectacularly awful job of preventing their weapons from being stolen. If a law-abiding citizen is going to own a "tool" which is especially useful to acomplish the jobs of robbery, mahem, and murder, don't they have a responsibility to ensure that their tools don't fall into the wrong hands?

Why do you think law-abiding gun owners are doing such an awful job of preventing their weapons from being stolen by criminals?

[_Bond James Bond]

Delete

[_bcspace]

A Modest Proposal to Reduce Gun Violence

No need. Just enforce existing law. You're proposal isn't going to stop crimes of passion or other criminals from obtaining a gun and not being traced to it if they want to. The solution is to change the culture.