Reply #199: that will fix it

[iverglas]

I do support strict laws for punishing morons who allow their guns to injure or hurt innocents (you left a loaded gun under your bed and your son shot his best friend? you go away for a long time).

And the best friend will go six feet under.

Is there a reason you don't care?

Loaded question? You might think. But me, I can't think of how anyone who did care could possibly think that "you go away for a long time" is an appropriate response to a COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE DEATH -- since NO RESPONSE SHOULD BE NECESSARY, because the death should not have happened and the risk of it happening would have been reduced if measures that DO EXIST to reduce the risk of the death happening had been implemented, and virtually eliminated if those measures had been complied with.

You left a loaded gun under your bed? YOU GET YOUR GUN TAKEN AWAY. And some other bad stuff. Even if nobody got hurt at all.

An awful lot of people don't seem to give a shit about their kids shooting their best friends, but apparently (as we're constantly told) give quite a big shit about the prospect of having their guns taken away.

Hard to enforce? You bet. Especially if nobody knows you have a firearm in the first place. But even without a registration requirement, laws do have instructive value, and some people do obey laws. Some compliance now, and rising rates of compliance over time as the instruction sinks in (think: seat belts and child safety seats in cars), just looks better to me than no compliance at all.

And you?