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A few voices on the issue of Guns and the Second Amendment
a) As a gun owner, I would rather see assault weapons licensed than banned. One must pass a written exam and undergo hours of in-person, small-group instruction to be allowed behind the wheel of a motor vehicle; I’d think it fair to require the owners of powerful firearms to do the same. The study time would put a brake on impulsive acts, and an instructor’s impression of their students’ attentiveness, seriousness, and mental state would be a useful adjunct to a background check. (I wouldn’t go so far as to let an instructor unilaterally declare a student unfit to purchase an assault weapon, but I’d allow them to confidentially flag a student for a more intensive background check if something about the student seems off.) Another idea would be to raise the minimum age to purchase assault weapons (so many mass shooters have been barely adults).
b) Ayn Rand was asked about her attitude on gun control at the Ford Hall Forum in ’73 and her response was, “If it were possible to regulate guns out of existence we would lose some of our ability to defend ourselves against criminals but we might gain a less fearful and less violent society. I’d be willing to make that trade. Killing people at a whim is far too easy and we should all hope to limit that ease.”
c) The mostly Republican fetish for the Second Amendment decreases American power because it decreases our moral standing.
d) As a Canadian firearms owner and competitive shooter, I think it’s unfortunate, for America, that a moderate system of gun control like Canada’s would be so impossible, politically, in your country. To own a rifle or shotgun here, you need a license, issued after a background check that includes asking your spouse if they have any objections. People with a history of domestic violence, other crimes, or mental problems can’t get one, generally speaking. Most rifles and shotguns don’t have to be registered, although it is a criminal offence to sell or give one to somebody who doesn’t have a license. You’re also required to keep them trigger locked, or in a safe, unless you’re in a spot where you need it handy for defense against predators, not uncommon in rural Canada.
e) Invert the concept of a red flag law and require anyone who wants to buy a gun to bring a hand-signed affidavit from someone not related to them, affirming that the person is someone they would trust to own a firearm. (The less constitutional but more effective version: apply this restriction to men only, and require the affidavit be signed by a woman.) Most shooters are young manchildren soaked in the brine of the worst parts of the internet as a social substitute for their lonely real life existence. I suspect that something along the lines of this restriction would have stopped the majority of recent shooters.
f) Over the past several weeks massacres have broken the hearts of feeling people in the United States and abroad. The purported reasons for the killings are not identical: racial hatred, personal anguish, rage. But something is consistent: violence as a response to what is roiling inside. And guns, of course. Arms are mundane and ubiquitous in this country.
As parents, we want to protect [our children]. We try to organize their lives so that they are unlikely to die in untimely ways. But there is another task we have, and it is more urgent. We must raise them, even into adulthood, to believe in the possibility of a loving and just world and that they have a responsibility to work for it. It is found in how we teach them to deal with discomfort and hurt, how to respond when they witness others suffering, and how to decide, among many possible priorities, what matters most. A hint: It is not the pursuit of perfection and attainment. Rather it is, in large part, the capacity for kindness and the ability to witness both ugliness and beauty. If we are honest, we cannot justify the meanness of the world, and we should not encourage our children to do so.
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