Should we try to form an alliance with gun dealers? [View all]

[BlueStreak]

Last edited Thu Dec 20, 2012, 11:23 AM - Edit history (1)

I do not believe the Obama administration is pursuing the best strategy. Ultimately the best they can do is a minimal bill that perhaps outlaws future sales of large magazines. The law will be so weak as to not actually affect the biggest problems. Passing such a law is counter-productive because it will just create an opportunity later for the NRA to say "See we told you gun laws never work."

The better strategy is to go big, pushing for a major reform that actually would make us safer, including at least these elements:

- All sales must be through licensed dealers
- All sales require a 7-day waiting period and a thorough background check
- Manufacture, sale, or use outside a controlled shooting range of military-style weapons (Bushmaster etc) is a felony
- Existing owners can take their current military-style weapons to their grave, but cannot sell or transfer them. The government would offer a non-mandatory buy-back program
- Possession, manufacture, or sale of any magazine greater than 10 shots is a felony. They must be destroyed immediately with a government buy-back program.
- Every gun owner must maintain a current permit, including mandatory safety training by a licensed dealer every 4 years.

I believe most of us could agree more-or-less on that set of requirements, and in fact, many NRA members would agree with most of that because this actually STRENGTHENS their right to gun ownership. The fewer mass gun murders, the less likely society is to ban all firearms.

So here is the important thing. The Obama administration should actively recruit the GUN DEALER INDUSTRY. Screw the NRA. Win over the gun dealers and you have an effective force to knock off the NRA. Everything on my list above is potentially very good for gun dealers. It increases their revenue opportunities and it makes them much more respectable businesses in their community. You think a gun dealer would like a requirement that every gun owner has to regularly take a refresher course from a licensed gun dealer? Every sale has to go through the dealers? The dealers manage the government buy-back programs, just as car dealers managed cash-for-clunkers?

You bet gun dealers would buy into that as long as we fund it so they can make a fair profit for the job they do.

I would appreciate any thoughts about this. I am trying to think of the downsides, but I just don't see any. I think this is the only strategy that has a real chance of doing something really good for our society in the gun violence problem.

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On edit, thread title changed to reflect the specific thread topic better.