What if — and it’s a crazy thought, I know, but stay with me — what if it actually isn’t a good idea to allow nearly everyone to buy all the guns they want with minimal to nonexistent background checks?
What if it’s not just poverty, joblessness, illegal drugs, wimpy judges and fractured families causing the sort of mayhem that recently saw three kids die of bullet wounds in just two days in Chicago? What if the glut of guns is a part of it?
What if we took some of the fear and desire for safety that animates the call for extreme vetting of refugees from the Middle East and turned that energy into a call for extreme vetting of those who want to purchase firearms?
Longtime readers know that I’m not a gun-grabbin’ liberal. To the dismay of many of my comrades on the left I’ve come out in support of concealed carry laws and private ownership of handguns, though I’m not an owner myself. I’m skeptical of efforts to ban certain weapons due to largely cosmetic attributes.
I believe law-abiding adults ought to have the right to protect themselves, their families and their property with guns, and to ventilate defenseless animals as hunting regulations allow.
I also believe that right — enshrined in the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights — is compatible with strongly enhanced measures to prevent firearms that were legally purchased for legitimate purposes from ending up in the hands of evildoers.
Measures such as …
Universal background checks. On all sales, public and private, at gun shows as well as gun shops. Estimates are that only six in 10 gun purchases are now screened for background-check violations.
And make them tough. I invoke President Donald Trump’s concept of extreme vetting for refugees and immigrants because if we’re willing to go to such dramatic lengths to protect Americans from the comparatively minuscule danger posed by those coming into our country who have already been through extensive security screening overseas, we should be equally or more willing to go to dramatic lengths to protect Americans from the comparatively immense danger posed by guns in the wrong hands.
Are prospective buyers trained? Can they store their guns securely? Are members of their households on the no-buy list?
Purchase limits. No one’s right to keep and bear arms would be meaningfully infringed by restrictions on the creation of home arsenals that are vulnerable to theft and that facilitate illicit private sales by straw purchasers.
Microstamping. Technology is available that engraves a code identifying the gun onto cartridges as bullets are fired. It’s imperfect and, of course, the gun lobby hates it — the National Shooting Sports Foundation said microstamping "makes about as much sense as putting serial numbers on toilet paper squares or regulating unicorn farts" — but combined with a more robust system for tracking the ownership of guns it could lead to fewer instances of indiscriminate gunfire of the sort that’s been killing Chicago’s children.
I know it’s not quite fair to attack the irresponsible use of guns by additionally burdening responsible users. Eighty percent or more of those who use guns in crimes did not purchase them through conventional legal means, according to research analyzed by PolitiFact in 2015. The evildoers borrowed them, stole them or purchased them on the black market.
And I know our criminal justice system needs to get tougher on those who use or carry guns illegally.
But I also know that we’re not going to arrest and imprison our way out of this problem, and that gun violence is much less severe in countries that aren’t awash in firearms.
What if — and, again, just a thought experiment here — instead of their stubbed-toe howling at any suggestion that additional gun restrictions stand to reduce the carnage on our streets, weapons enthusiasts offered creative alternatives that go beyond their tedious, feckless bleating that we only need "to enforce the guns laws already on the books"?
What if, instead of retreating into their corners and clucking reproachfully at each ghastly news bulletin from our bloody streets, gun lovers and gun grabbers met in the middle to find common cause?
We’ll never know.
Twitter @EricZorn
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