On Gun Laws
Sunday, July 3, 2022
What follows is my naive take on gun safety and laws around ownership.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution states:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Here’s when I start asking stupid questions, I’m not a lawyer, please be kind.
I’m thinking about states like California who have pretty strict laws around guns but the recent Supreme Court decision may make Californians less safe.
Could California, or any state with tight gun regulations, create a militia program that requires gun owners to register their firearms, be trained on their use at least once a year, buy insurance for each gun, pass any psychological tests, pass background checks and require a permit, or license, that shows they’re qualified to own and fire their guns? Folks in the military are required to demonstrate their proficiency with their weapons once a year.
Everyone likes to skip the “A well regulated Militia” bit. I typically hear ”the Second Amendment says I can have a gun.”
Sure, ok, it says you can have a gun as part of a well regulated militia. It doesn’t say what type of gun, or you can own as many as you’d like, or that you don’t need a license to own it, or that you can be untrained.
If it’s legally possible states that would like to restrict access to weapons of war should, if they can, make state sponsored militias, with strict rules around ownership. It seems a good first step to squashing mass killing incidents.
Another thing. Banning weapons of war for anything outside of the military seems the reasonable thing to do. Folks that say they need an AR-15 for hunting are full of crap. You don’t need one for hunting. Just admit that you have a thing for killing weapons, a machismo if you will, and get on with it. There are plenty of specialized weapons for hunting. You’re not going to hunt bird with an AR-15. You’d never hit anything in the air.
I was a hunter as a kid. I went to training to learn how to properly handle a shotgun for bird hunting and had to demonstrate I could be responsible with it. I’m pretty certain the training I received was backed by the NRA, but I’m not 100% sure.
I hope we can eliminate mass murder in America, soon.