As folks think about rational controls on guns, I would suggest that we need to set a threshold of the capacity of a gun that is appropriate for citizen ownership in terms of firepower capacity within a period of time.
This is instead of banning a specific type of gun or add-on – leaving the loophole for an equivalent to be produced with a different name.
We should be able to agree on a certain level of firepower for a specific duration of time and put that into the regulations. Personal ownership does not include military-grade weapons and ammunition.
Putting the focus on the capabilities of the weapon is more sustainable and purposeful.
It can also be used to address the emergence of Lego-like guns which can be deconstructed into parts and combined with other parts to form weapons that would not be legal if they were sold in their modified configuration. If the part has the capacity to be turned into an ‘illegal’ weapon, then they part is not legal.
I also propose that if we want to retain the freedom to arm citizens it comes with the right of the government to track all gun ownership and ammunition purchases.
Have manufacturers be obligated to mark all guns and ammo with a mark that can be traced back to the manufacturer and use this to track all sales. Unaccounted for weapons and ammunition remain registered to the manufacturer. Therefore untracked / registered sales place some liability back on the manufacturers who enable unchecked channels of sales.
The tracking of the ammo and weaponry will be enabled by a background check for all purchases regardless of purchase channel. Again if the purchase does not follow the background check procedure, the previous owner remains accountable for the subsequent actions of the weapons and ammo.
There was a lot of questions as to why no one knew the Vega shooter had all those weapons – well we don’t allow them to be tracked centrally and not all purchases are tracked.
And we should have each gun owner hold the responsibility to have previously completed some level of formal gun safety training. This can be completed and registered with the entity that is completing background checks. If there hasn’t been any safety training, the sale transaction waits until it has been completed.
The above gets to the heart of the issue – owning guns carries a responsibility.
If I have to provide all of the information it would take to complete the above to buy over-the-counter medicine because it could be used to produce different drugs, there should be NO issue with collecting this type of registry for guns and weapons.
And if there is so much interest in interfering with a women’s access to legal health procedures, there should be no issue with introducing checks and balances for the purchase of legal weapon and ammo.
Intersectionality - Being Human 