Shooter incident at elementary school in Uvalde, Texas - 19 children and 2 adults dead
It is 10am on the east coast right now
I do not own a gun. If I decide right now "I want to buy a gun" I don't think there should be anyway or any scenario that I should have a gun in my possession in my home by the time I go to bed tonight
Saying "I think I want to buy a gun" should be less like "I think I want to buy a new TV" and more like "I think I want to adopt a baby" - there should be a thorough process
There should be required training/safety/storage requirements (in fact there should be required before you're able to take possession of a gun)
If someone wants to own a hundred guns, they can own a hundred guns. But there should be a record of the 100 guns, exactly what the gun is, serial number, where you got it, and if you sell a gun, who did you sell it to, and that person need to register that they got it from you
And no one needs 100 guns for home defense or hunting, if you want that many guns fine, but once you get past X number of guns there should an extra fee/tax
I believe it's the same for cars, at some point a few cars turns into a fleet which I think there are costs past that threshold
Once the number of guns you have can be described as an arsenal - there should be extra costs involved
I don't think that background checks should be a one and done. That's fine for one handgun but for a certain number of guns or certain type there should be periodic checks
You pass the checks with flying colors today, great. 3 years from now you start tweeting out violent threats, that should show up on someone's radar and someone should show up on your doorstep (side question, why do so many of these shooters seem to post about it or general violent intentions beforehand?)
These are just some thoughts I've had, and I know they are inconvenient, especially for life long responsible gun owners, but I don't think there is any way to solve this issue without causing inconveniences
Posted on MAP as well
Approach from a country that also has the constitutional right to bear arms
I suspect the American failure rate would be much higher
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PRAGUE — When eight people had taken their seats in the classroom, the proctor put on his glasses and said it was time to begin. He took attendance. He glowered as one person walked in late.
He described how the test would work — 30 multiple-choice questions, 40 minutes — and how to properly mark an X on the answer sheet. Then he ordered phones away; only a pen and paper, he said, were permitted on the table.
“If anybody needs to go to the toilet, now is the time,” he said.
The test had all the tedious markings of a high school exam, down to the motivational poster on the wall saying “I will.”
But in the Czech Republic, this is part of how you obtain a gun.
And 40 minutes later, three of the nine had already failed, ushered out the door as the others went on to the later stages of the exam, in which they had to prove the ability to handle a weapon safely and shoot accurately.
In an America riven by gun violence, with recent mass killings at a Walmart in Virginia and an LGBTQ club in Colorado, weapons can often be purchased without even a background check.
With the country divided about even the smallest changes to gun laws, the question is only hypothetical: What if anybody who wanted a gun had to first prove their competence?
The Czech Republic embodies an answer.
By European standards, its gun laws are permissive. It allows people to carry concealed weapons for the purpose of self-defense, and it is one of the few countries in the world — and the only one in Europe — that provide the constitutional right to bear arms.
But exercising that right is contingent on the test.
Czech lawmakers and gun owners say their national system dramatically increases the odds of responsible ownership. The rules also require a health clearance and a background check, and demand safe storage of weapons once they are purchased.
In a country more populous than New York City, there were seven homicides using guns during all of last year.
“We really have bad politics in many ways here — corruption. But something I am proud of is this law,” said Martin Fiser, 35, a weapons instructor. “It can be a model for the rest of the world.”
The test is obligatory for anybody who wants a weapon, including hunters, collectors, even someone inheriting a shotgun from a grandfather.
The standards are high: The test consists of questions randomly drawn from a pool of 501 possible.
Those trying to obtain the hardest-to-get license — for concealed carry — can miss no more than one question. The failure rate is around 40 percent…….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/25/gun-rights-test-czech-republic/