What Is Sensible Gun Control?

Some examples of meaningful gun laws, including several supported by members of the NRA

In arguing for restrictions on gun control, guns rights advocates often ask for examples of laws and regulations to prevent gun violence. Of course, many of these advocates are already familiar with these solutions. They may simply not want to see them implemented. But I’ve wanted to put a listing of these proposals in one place, so people can refer to them. And honestly? There are many to choose from. When I hear people say there are none, I despair at their lack of creativity. Or really, let’s face it, their desire to maintain the status quo — at least where gun ownership is concerned, if not gun violence.

This is especially frustrating when you realize there are many laws supported by NRA members, which the NRA itself blocks. Here are some examples, taken from an article, which provides details and data on this support by NRA members of “5 Gun Safety regulations that even NRA members support.”

1. Requiring criminal background checks on gun owners and gun shop employees.
2. Prohibiting terrorist watch list members from acquiring guns. (There should be consideration for due process, so maybe we can explore ways of addressing this which don’t interfere with it)
3. Mandating that gun-owners tell the police when their gun is stolen.
4. Concealed carry permits should only be restricted to individuals who have completed a safety training course and are 21 and older.
5.Concealed carry permits shouldn’t be given to perpetrators of violent misdemeanors or individuals arrested for domestic violence.

Of course, there are other laws, which NRA members may or may not be so eager to support. Some of these may be more or less likely to be viable for different reasons, I realize.

• Remove access to all semi-automatics weapons or limit it to people who have to established themselves as the most law-abiding and safest users of weaponry. That group may very well include many of my gun-owning friends. But I don’t think it’d be unConstitutional to, at very least, remove semi-automatics from quite a few people and make them earn the right to own them. Personally, I’d have no problem with an outright assault weapon ban (yes, I know many people don’t like the term “assault weapon”), though I’m realistic that we live in a democracy, it’s not likely to happen any time soon. I don’t think citizens need broad access to assault weapons, nor do I think the founders envisioned such complex and deadly weaponry at the time. Also keeping “the regulated militia clause” in mind, many owners of such weaponry aren’t participating in anything remotely like a regulated militia.
• Similarly, place restrictions on large-capacity magazines
• Require already developed fingerprint technology on weapons to ensure they can only be used by their owners. (Might require some sort of grandfathering for collectors.)
• Get rid of all private sales exemptions, including sales at gun shows or other private sales by non-licensed salespeople. Gun rights advocates often claim that gun show dealers do background checks already, but there’s evidence many don’t. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. The Bloomberg administration investigated the issue and caught people doing it. In their report — done in states across the country: Ohio, Nevada, Tennessee — they showed that 19 out of 30 dealers broke the law. That included sellers who “would willingly sell to someone who said they probably could not pass a background check.” [Emphasis mine.] Overall, the 36-page report showed that 35 out of 47 gun sellers failed an integrity test. 75% of gun sellers.
• Expand the 24-hour gun background check to make it universal
• Prevent people from accessing guns who have certain types of mental illness — the existing laws are extremely porous and actually catch very few people (There are certainly legitimate privacy concerns we should consider in implementing this one.)
• Ban domestic abusers from purchasing hand guns
• Require training and safety courses — at least for certain types of weapons. Be more like Switzerland in other words.
• Remove the unwarranted restrictions which prevent the CDC from studying gun violence systemically as an issue in our society.

These are some examples, which come to my mind most readily. I’m sure there are others. And I’m sure if we’re committed to creativity there are probably more we can come up with. I’m not so naive as to think that only gun laws will help remedy the issues we have with gun violence in this country, but they can help.