Gun Controls That Might Work

As noted in my previous post, some of the gun-control legislation and individual / corporate actions and reactions after school or mass shootings are "feel good." Like Dick's Sporting Goods choosing not to sell any "assault-style" weapons any longer - the moves give people good and happy feelings, but do nothing to limit crime in the greater sense.

I am generally pro-Second Amendment. I believe that people have the right to defend themselves, with deadly force if necessary. I also think that most progressives who talk about "doing something," either: (1) Do not offer or cannot understand what legislation will do and not do; or (2) DO understand that legislation which makes any given firearm or type illegal will fail to accomplish its ends, and are seeking gradual steps towards seizure of all firearms.

With that said, there are some laws and actions which I think will help the violence situation. As I noted in my previous post, the majority of gun crime occurs with stolen weapons. To whit: "...further reading seems to indicate that in cases of gun crime 'in approximately 8 out of 10 cases, the perpetrator was not a lawful gun owner but rather in illegal possession of a weapon that belonged to someone else.'"

Therefore, I propose the following laws:

1. Tort or criminal liability for gun owners who fail to secure their weapons and report the theft of those weapons to police. As indicated in the article, "But more than 40 percent of those stolen guns weren't reported by the owners as stolen until after police contacted them when the gun was used in a crime." Hopefully, such a law will have the effect of making owners more aware of the need to secure their weapons, and the need to report their theft. The article also states that "[o]ne of the more concerning findings in the study was that for the majority of guns recovered (62 percent)"the place where the owner lost possession of the firearm was unknown."

2. Cracking down hard on straw purchasers. This is a problem where someone who cannot legally purchase a gun prevails on friends or family to purchase a gun on their behalf. The article notes that "One potential sign that straw purchasing is a factor in the Pittsburgh data: Forty-four percent of the gun owners who were identified in 2008 did not respond to police attempts to contact them." We have laws already against straw purchasing - the need to be enforced harshly.

3. Tort or criminal liability for parents whose in-home children are perpetrators of gun crime using weapons owned by the parents, in addition to tort or criminal liability for parents whose children post social media which threatens violence against again person, and which violence is later carried out.

4. A system of required weapons insurance policies for gun owners, which insures against use of the weapons in crime, and which will provide cushion for the above liabilities for victims.

Just some thoughts.