So Rusty, your proposal is adding background checks for private sales? Why would that help? How many of these mass shootings would that have prevented? How many criminal injuries or deaths result from guns legally purchased in private sales without background checks?
Background checks for private sales combined with mandatory registration would reduce the number of guns that enter the black market. It probably wouldn't do much to reduce mass shootings but could help the overall criminal injury rate.
Hopefully, a new education and licensing program would filter out some of the mentally ill that conduct mass shootings, but perhaps more importantly, it could help reduce the insane number of accidental shootings of and by children every year and keep guns out of the hands of the suicidal.
We should also look at ways to make guns safer, such as better/mandatory locks or perhaps fingerprint recognition safeties. (This isn't a complete list, and these aren't necessarily feasible at this time.)
None of these things will instantly reduce gun deaths, but it's a start and something gun owners should support before God forbid something worse than Sandy Hook takes place and people actually want to do something more drastic.
How do background checks for private sales combined with mandatory registration reduce the number of guns in the black market? What do you define as the "black market"?
How would that significantly reduce accidental shooting deaths?
And again, you finish by mentioning Sandy Hook, but I don't see how anything you've proposed actually prevents mass killings by crazies in any meaningful way.
I mean, I explicitly said none of those things would instantly reduce gun deaths. But it's a start that includes nothing that violates the second amendment - if the registration, education, improved background checks, new gun designs and safety features, etc., aren't working, you figure out why and adjust. The notion that "nothing short of eliminating the second amendment will almost entirely eliminate gun deaths" is a terrible reason to do nothing.
I'm not trying to argue with you or push a point of view. I don't know much about this so I'm curious. I really want to know why you think things like a national gun registry would help.
But I don't think saying "well, I don't know if this will help or not, but what's the harm in trying?" is an acceptable answer. Unless there's a real benefit (and maybe there is), I don't think we should force people to register to exercise a consitutional right - not a privilege, like driving, but a right.
Then there's the cost. I did some quick Googling and found that Canada tried to implement a similar national gun registry. They originally estimated it would cost $2 million.
As I understand it, it then ballooned to over $500 million, achieved little if any perceivable benefit, and has now been mostly scrapped?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Firearms_RegistrySo again, I'm not rying to put down any ideas - I just genuinely want to know your reasoning.
