Reply #14: I don't think licensing would reduce violent crime, in the same way that

[tblue37]

requiring a driver's license doens't mean that idiots won't drive without a license if they get theirs suspended for some reason or another.

But a lot of people who really do not know what the hell they are doing are enchanted enough by our country's glorification of guns to buy them and keep them (usually unsafely stored) around. I think that licensing would create a situation in which most i people would follow the law, so most people with guns would know how to handle them and store them responsibly.

Idiots and bad guys would still be idiots and bad guys, so they would still do what they shouldn't do. But I believe that requiring people to know how to drive well enough to pass a driving exam does prevent a lot of potential vehicular tragedies, and I believe that if most people had to learn enough about guns to prove they know how to use them and store them safely, we would hear about fewer accidental tragedies involving guns.