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In reply to the discussion: I target shoot! I have a 22 , and a 9mm . [View all]Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)These days, I wouldn't be able to get a license (I'm British, a license is required to hold longarms here and handguns are outright banned) on grounds of mental instability. I support your right to keep and bear arms, I just ask for a few regulations. Specifically:
- Magazines limited to 15-rounds.
- A mandatory firearms safety test. The NRA would hate t which is ironic since much of the content would be lifted from their (rather good) safety classes. The way I have it figured, you take the test, get a card that says you're safe (good for ten years) and you have to show that card to buy a gun. I'm not bothered if the class is run by the NRA, your local sheriff or a private academy, so long as it teaches basic firearms safety. Someone on another thread suggested offering it as a high school class (in the same way as some schools do driver's ed) and I'm fine with that idea. Oh, and it would work like the driver's ed test. If you fail, you can just keep trying until you pass.
- Universal background check. That closes the gun show loophole that estimates say 40% of gun sales go through.
- No carrying a weapon when you're drinking. This should be a no-brainer. Drunk people with firearms leads to some poor slob getting shot for supporting the wrong team.
- Harsher penalties for holding a firearm illegally or selling illegally.
- Firearms trafficking statute with strong penalties.
- Federal buy-back program. The hope is that it would soak up some of the loose weapons on the street.
- Proper funding of teh list of people who may not legally own a firearm. This is teh list which teh background check system compares your name against and it's not properly funded.
That's eight measures, the same eight I've been proposing (with some minor alterations of language) in response to every firearms related tragedy for the last decade or so. Once those eight measures are met, I'll consider the matter settled until the march of technology makes these measures obsolete.