General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSolution to Guns
I have posted this before and it had a mixed review, but in the Era we are in, we must give and take to get towards a goal. That goal is gun safety.
Why does a person need an AR-15 in their home or small parcel of land? They don't!
Why does a person have to fire their AR-15 for everyone to hear in their backyard? They don't!
Why does a person have an AR-15? Because they spent the money for one to own and believe it is for their protection or prospects of going to war.
Sad but true!
My solution:
You can not simply ask these people to hand you their AR-15. It is nearly waste of time to every consider doing that and they would use it on you if you try to take it away.
Solution: Private individuals can own one if they register the AR-15 and ONLY have it at a private gun club or range where it is stored under lock and key. Any transfer of the weapons must be under a license arms dealer.
1. Gun clubs would profit under this.
2. Storage of the deadly weapon will keep it out of bad actors.
3. Safety of firing the weapon will occur at a range, not in a back yard.
4. This is not taking the weapons away, but a restriction of where the weapons can be.
5. Set a particular date a few months away and anyone failing to adhere to the new law, would severely fined and lost of the weapon.
Thoughts?
Ocelot II
(115,571 posts)that he's a manly patriot who's there to protect the other shoppers against old ladies who squeeze the cantaloupes too hard?
kacekwl
(7,010 posts)the same idea. That's how I know. They still own the gun but can only access it at a range where they can go shoot their brains out at the target of their choice.
Zeitghost
(3,843 posts)Gun owners are no more likely to go for this than they are for confiscation and would see little difference between the two for a variety of reasons. Philosophically, they would be 100% against it, practically, it would make using the rifle for hunting or target shooting difficult, especially for those used to shooting at private ranges. It also takes away a large part of the appeal of the AR and the countless ways to personalize it like you would a custom car.
I say that only to show that it would take an incredible amount of political capital to accomplish and would not serve to stop the vast majority of shootings, making it an impractical idea politically.
To significantly reduce violent gun deaths, you need to go after handguns. And that is a non-starter now and for the foreseeable future. Assault weapon bans are based on cosmetic features that can easily be worked around by changing grips and installing devices that alter the magazine releases to get around the ineffective laws. Walk into any gun store in California and you can get more or less anything you want. There might be fewer options, but the firearms are the same ballistically as anything you can buy in Texas.
Smackdown2019
(1,183 posts)I am only suggesting military style rapid fire weapons. Handguns and hunting rifles should not be interfered as a prohibited weapons. I own guns, but nothing like these military weapons.
Zeitghost
(3,843 posts)They are worth 10's of thousands of dollars and are rarely if ever used in crimes, mostly because of their rarity, cost and the fact that they really don't offer criminals any advantage because without linked ammo and a crew of people feeding the gun it runs out of ammo in a second or two.
AR-15 is considered a machine gun. As it is a rapid fire machine....
Zeitghost
(3,843 posts)The AR-15 is a semi automatic rifle capable of firing one round per pull of the trigger like every other semi automatic firearm. Its rate of fire is not unique or special.
mitch96
(13,869 posts)license test, test, insurance, registraiton and periodic renewal....
but But BUT the gunhumpers would never go for that.. "too intrusive" is what I was told.. I'm at a loss
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LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)Ignoring the problems in the Senate and the Supreme Court, red states arent interested in new gun control and wont go along with any gun bans or registrations anymore than blue states plan on going along with banning abortion.
But if we ban it you have to follow the law.
Which is when they point to blue states legalizing cannabis while ignoring federal law. Their red state sheriffs wont enforce it. With no registration, how will the feds? Just have agents go to every redneck town and hang out at their gun clubs?
Amishman
(5,553 posts)We don't know who has them or even how many there are
enforcement would be nearly impossible
likely to be directly nullified by state governments in red or even purple states
Unlikely to survive legal challenge
We can come up with a ton of these: add a $100 per bullet tax, make them require a license and not staff the designated licensing office so none ever get issued, require storage requirements so strict that no one can meet them, detailed recoccurring psych evaluations that few could pass and fewer would be willing to do.
But ultimately it boils down to the same issue - gun culture is to pervasive for implementation or enforcement to be possible.
There is no viable 'nuclear option' to fix this in one go. The answer is fix the socio-economic and cultural roots that make people want these weapons and also leads people to want to indiscriminately murder strangers - -while passing what little pieces of gun safety we can to mitigate damage in the short term. Raising the age to buy semi automatics to 21 seems like a low bar that might be possible. better background checks also could have a decent chance.
LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)We need true healthcare for all, a minimum wage in proportion with what it should be, adaption to climate change and a move away from our oil masters. Do all that, and you create a happier population; which will cause crime to go down. Mass shootings will still happen, but overall crime will be way down.
Another step to take would be to legalize the drugs that arent really a problem. The ones that are, stop arresting for them or help or court lead them to rehab; where the money should be going. I think we can all agree there is a world of difference between walking around with a cannabis high and being on meth.