In the last week we've had another round of mass shootings, something that should exasperate us all. I'm a gun rights advocate and it exasperates me to no end. Because I defend the right to keep and bear arms people take opportunities like these to chastise me, wondering how I can still support that right.
Well, here's the reason: none of the guns that I own have killed anybody, and none of them are likely to. None of the people I know have killed anybody, and none of them are likely to. From a purely statistical point of view, we live in an era of peace unparalleled in my lifetime, and even with these terrible incidents the likelihood that anybody will ever be shot and/or killed is so small as to be irrelevant. That's why.
Nevertheless, these incidents need to stop. Massacres serve to belie the idea that we live in a civilized society. That we live in a civilized society may be a lie we tell ourselves, given the never-ending stream of police abuse, the mass incarceration of African Americans, the continued use of the death penalty, and the vast number of people we charge with crimes that ought not be crimes for the purpose of raising funds at their expense, but it's a goal we should strive for.
So, how do we reduce gun violence? Well, there are some simple steps we ought to take. For starters, we need to make every exchange of firearms not involving family members subject to a background check. Naturally we'll never be able to ensure that every exchange undergoes a check because we don't have a registry. So we should have a registry. Right now I can see other gun rights advocates turning red with fury and sputtering all sorts of inane things because I had the temerity to suggest that there ought to be one. Well, we do have the right to keep and bear arms (with limits), but a registry does not offend that right. There have to be certain protections involved in its creation, but the absurd paranoia about the government coming to get our guns must cease.
We also need to link the National Instant Check System to a national mental health database. When filling out a BATFE Form 4473 the purchaser must attest to the fact that they have never been adjudicated "mentally defective" or committed to a mental institution. That doesn't include seeing a counselor or any number of problems, it only applies to people who have been judged that way by a court or other government agency. Since lying on the form doesn't stop the purchase from happening without some way to confirm it, it's useless to ask. So, we need to amend HIPAA so that it can be checked. When a rejection comes back the seller never knows why, so it's a very small invasion of privacy that would pay dividends with every rejection.
These are two small things we can do. They will never happen. The reasons are simple: gun rights advocates have been worked into a frenzy over the possibility of losing their rights, and the gun control advocates have gone a long way to confirming their fears. After Sandy Hook we had a golden opportunity to get some things passed. Instead, the very next day, Dianne Feinstein whips out the gold standard for gun control advocates, a reimplementation of the expired Assault Weapons Ban, with add-ons to boot. The AWB will never again be law, but still, there it was. There was a groundswell of support for new measures, well over 50% of the people wanted them, but instead the spectre of the past got in the way because someone saw a golden opportunity to shoot for the stars. Instead it turned into what amounted to sabotage. Furthermore, while everybody wants to keep guns out of the hands of crazy people there is a significant opposition to actually taking the required steps because it stigmatizes people with mental issues. There has to be some give on that, too.
Gun control people need to understand that bans are dead on arrival. Gun rights people need to understand that nobody is coming for their guns. And somewhere in the middle they should be able to meet. If we are going to get a handle on this we need to think differently. Alas, the well is poisoned. So we wait until the next time, we rehash the same arguments, and absolutely no consideration is given to the next victims. We like to think that we have the best country in the world. Let's prove it for once. Get it done.
