Reply #50: I've tried that, here and elsewhere...

[benEzra]

The point is that it's possible for people to come together and make acceptable laws if they aren't led around by the NRA. Why don't you find the gun violence people in your state and meet with them to find methods you all agree on?

I've tried that, here and elsewhere. Some suggestions I've made in the past are

(1) opening up NICS to private sales in some way, as long as it was not onerous and there were criminal safeguards against registration or harassment;

(2) tracing of all guns used in murders and prosecution of the intentional straw purchasers identified thereby (not to include bona fide victims of theft or cons, though);

(3) tax credit for purchase of a UL-listed gun safe, to help working-class families more easily afford them (we went years without a safe because we simply couldn't afford one, though we have one now);

(4) encourage a return to the successful community policing model instead of the "keep the 'civilians' in line"/Homeland Security/Surveillance Nation model currently in vogue on both the right and the left;

(5) a more intelligent approach to the War on Non-Approved Herbs, which is directly responsible for most U.S. gun violence, just as alcohol prohibition was in its era;

(6) provide adequate mental health care in this country, and destigmatize it instead of trying so hard to make it more stigmatized;

and so on. There are more, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Unfortunately, my experience has been that a majority of gun-control activists are more concerned with restrictions for restrictions' sake, rather than looking for reasonable, common-ground solutions to bona fide concerns. The obsession with outlawing AR-15's (most popular centerfire target rifle in America), protruding rifle handgrips (why?), long-range rifles (no .50 has EVER been used in a U.S. homicide), scaling back CHL licensure, etc. are examples, as such restrictions aren't aimed at criminal gun violence at all, but at circumscribing lawful ownership, either as a symbolic gesture, to give a sense of "doing something" about criminal violence, or whatever.

Gun owners rarely get credit for supporting compromise legislation, e.g. the armor-piercing ammunition ban of 1986, the NICS point-of-sale background check, CHL licensing requirements, the strict National Firearms Act restrictions on assault rifles and other automatic weapons, etc.