General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bad News for the NRA - people are fugging serious [View all]libdem4life
(13,877 posts)attend a training class...one for proper gun usage and storage, and a second to include children if there are any in the home.
Heavy fines and/or legal consequences and likely confiscation if the gun is involved in any crime and a Police Report taken and filed. The owner, if not reported stolen, will be charged. Insurance is required for each firearm, cost dependent on capacity to kill...single shot, vs multiple shot war machines. Payouts to victim/s and for property damage incurred and must carry an insurance card, along with registration card to show, if needed. No weapon or ammunition that is meant primarily for multiple-shot murder or war...NONE.
As to those currently in distribution, strict laws regarding their updated registration, taxation, and storage. Added legal ramifications for a domestic/family crime...intended or unintended such as a child accidentally killing or wounding someone, the owner of the gun is liable...see insurance...and other injured may also sue for damages. Situations involving guns and alcohol or drugs...legal or illegal...heavier penalties. Un-registered and un-insured guns are confiscated.
Other than some inconveniences, in theory, and taking responsibility for the entire gun community...like automobile drivers are...any law-abiding gun/s owner should not object too much to this.
The insurance factor is spreading the costs across the base...like car or health insurance. The taxpayer...a majority of whom do not own guns, ultimately pay for it through higher healthcare insurance rates, damage to public property, survivor's crisis, public legal ramifications or the businesses whose livelihood are disturbed or destroyed. Insurer's who feel they were hurt by Obamacare, can go after this market...apparently it is huge.
It is ludicrous to task the mental health industry ...counseling and temporary mental hospital stays and pharmeceuticals...with this responsibility as there is nothing significant it can do, as an industry. Family Law folk, especially, understand the desired task is to stabilize the person or defuse the interaction, and return them home. Neither can anyone be arrested "before they actually do something".
Earlier posts have described the nigh impossibility of declaring someone "mentally ill" or "incapacitated" and the tremendous financial and public legal costs. And one can't just go around and label someone mentally unfit for the hell of it...there are slander laws that prevent that unless a judge has declared it legally. The money is better spent in gun management.
And vowing to "do something" about the society of poverty and racism and video games and violent movies et al, is doomed. Any positive movement in those areas would be helpful, but again, the gun community must come to terms with the fact that with rights come responsibilities.
Unless one is as bat shit crazy as Alex Jones and fear FEMA or and UN or the government-is-coming-after-us-Waco-types , there are only two main reasons I can see to own weaponry...one for in the home self-protection, and the other for hunting or target ranges, etc.
Good luck, Gabby and Mark. Your work will raise our consciousness.