Classes and Licensing Needed

A man in McHenry County shot an 18 year old that was on his property The teenager was crossing the man's property to a neighbor's house to TP the neighbor's yard. The shooter claimed to have shouted a warning and opened fire. He opened fire despite the victim and his friend running away. Three rifle shots hit the teenager. Fortunately, none of the bullets struck vital areas and he survived.

And the NRA wonders why people want to limit gun ownership? If they defend this guy they clearly prove that they are out of their mind. The man used deadly force when no one's life was in danger. Even if the teenagers had been breaking into his car, deadly force would have been excessive and illegal.

Personally, I favor legal gun ownership. I disagree with the Chicago law that outlaws the ownership of firearms (I think hand guns only, rifles may be OK). But I don't favor ownership for everyone and I do favor controls.

First and foremost, no one should be able to buy a gun from anywhere without a background check. There are some complications with private sales but any store and any organized event (aka gun show) should be required to do a check. Because of the short time gun shows are in town some new technology would have to be put in place to allow the check to happen more or less in real time.

Second, all fire arm owners need to be registered. I know this "scares" the NRA. They think the government will use any such list to take away people's guns. But it provides a way to trace the ownership of guns used in the commission of a crime. It can at least get to the last registered user. If a gun is privately sold the seller and user should have to file a paper saying it was sold. If a gun is stolen the owner should have to report it. If either the private sale or theft is not registered there should be a legal penalty. Yes, I understand that things can be stolen and the person would not know but reasonableness and logic should be used in application of the law.

Third, there should be restictions on the types of guns that can be owned and the number of guns that can be purchased over a given period of time. There is no reason a person needs an assault rifle or a .50 caliber rifle. These are purely military weapons. They kill en masse. For the most part, there is no reason to buy more than two or three guns at a given time (collectors could apply for exemptions, even post purchase).

Fourth, all fire arm owners must be required to pass a basic competency test with every gun they own. The competency would include basic marksmanship. I'm not expecting everyone that owns a gun to be an ace marksman but they should be able to hit something the size of a refrigerator at 30 feet with a hand gun and maybe double that with a rifle.

More importantly, the competency would include courses on:

• Gun safety
  
  • Handling
    
  • Cleaning
    
  • Storing
    
  
  
• Gun Laws
  
  • Transportation
    
  • When its legal to use in self defense
    
  • Ownership requirements (see the above laws)
    

Now I'm not naive enough to think this will stop gun violence. And the guy in this story clearly has some issues with the law and this may not have prevented the incident. Gun violence is something that we will live with as long as guns exist in our society. And face it, that cat is out of the bag. The NRA and their ilk want more or less unrestricted ownership and point to the Constitution as a basis for this belief.

I differ. I relate gun ownership to driving a car. It is a privelge. And even the NRA and its supporters believe this. They are some of the big supporters of laws that don't allow convicted criminals or other violent and mentally disabled people to own firearms. Just as driving a car is a privelege and requires licensing so should gun ownership. And gun ownership should be more restricted and more strictly licensed. Compare the two things. Ownership and use of car has a non-violent use. It transports people and goods across large distances. Even though automobiles kill far more people each year than guns it is mostly attributable to far more cars being in daily and constant use. A gun has one use and one use only. It is designed to kill. Kill animals and kill people. That sole purpose means ownership comes with unique obligations that the owners need to meet.