Gunman goes on shooting spree in Tacoma neighborhood

[primavera]

18. I don't know any way to detect all potential lunatics in advance...

... but I think there are steps that we could take that, together, would have some positive impact. Certainly universal background checks would be a place to start. Personally, I'd be open to something similar to the medical disclosure rules we have for impaired driving, e.g., if you have epilepsy, your physician has to report to the Department of Motor Vehicles that you have this condition and are not safe to drive until you've undergone treatment for the condition and have gone X number of months without having a seizure. It seems to me that it would not be so different to require psychologists to report patients with violent tendencies for purposes of being allowed to have a gun license. I think mandatory gun safety education could also be a place to detect persons who are perhaps not up for the responsibility of owning a firearm. For instance, you could require prospective gun owners to receive instruction and pass an exam, similar to what we require of drivers, and, if someone taking the test scribbles "Kill them all!" with his own blood, maybe not such a good person to be issued a license.

I think a lot of this could be prevented by simply having a different attitude about firearms. In most developed nations, firearm ownership is a privilege and a responsibility, so, if your fellow citizens perceive that you are failing to take that responsibility seriously and pose a hazard to yourself and/or others, societal attitudes about guns support reporting that person. Here, we believe gun ownership is an inalienable right to which one is entitled merely by virtue of breathing and no goddam government is going to tell us what we can or cannot do. If we cultivated societal attitudes towards gun abuses similar to those which we have achieved vis a vis drunk driving, maybe people would be more inclined to tell someone when they see their crazy neighbor emptying magazines in his backyard into an Obama effigy or whatever.