I don't know the answer to the problem of guns. These are just my ignorant musings.
1) I really don't want to live in a country where everyone is toting guns around. This I think is the NRA response to the fact that we have murderous criminals and terrorists in our midst, that if the good guys have guns they can stop said murderers and terrorists. I do think this is true to a point. There probably are circumstances where a civilian who is trained can protect others from some crazy person trying to do them harm. But if everyone takes this attitude that seems to me to just increase the chances of accident, mistaken reactions, poor judgment, etc. There are way too many people who are angry, anxious, depressed, jumpy, unstable, confused, sleep-deprived, drunk, doped up, etc to have most people walking around with guns. We already have some jumpy cops who tend to respond to every encounter like it's going to be a shoot out. And they are supposed to be trained to handle high crisis situations! I remember a few years ago a cop shot an Asian lady who was having a psychotic episode at the local Walmart. She was wielding a knife or scissors or something and the cop shot and killed her. If he didn't have that gun, she'd be alive today because he'd have to come up with something else short of deadly force for the situation that probably didn't call for deadly force. I think my reaction was why didn't he just knock her down with a shopping cart for goodness sake. You know the saying: when all you have is a hammer. . . . So it is just untenable to think that if everyone packed heat, there would somehow be less gun death. People just don't have enough self-control. And, man, everyone would be paranoid knowing that most other people had guns on them.
2) Black/white gun culture differences - this might be ragingly racist sounding on my part, but I honestly don't mean it that way. I am sure this is just because of where I live and who my associates are and the fact that I'm white, but to me white gun culture includes the following: hunters, military, guys who belong to the Isaac Walton league and like to go trap shooting, 2nd Amendment constitutionalists, rednecks who drink and shoot tin cans in their backyard and occasionally each other, criminals. Black gun culture - gangstas, drug lords, rap artists who die young at the hands of thugs. Come to think of it now, plenty of black people join the military so that should be part of my perception but it doesn't figure heavily. I am just talking about my own (faulty) perceptions. When I think of white gun owners I have a mix of good and bad. When I think of black gun owners I think of gangsters. I used to work for the public defenders office in Baltimore so this has probably colored my perceptions. Baltimore is torn with gang violence. The truth is though that black pop culture right now is rooted in a
glorified gangsta world. That could not be good when it comes to how others perceive African-Americans.
On the other hand, rap culture isn't the only place where violence is glorified. We have movies, TV and video games as well. Our culture is saturated with it.
3) I have two sisters who married good men who definitely were part of the white gun culture, both from the south. One from South Carolina and the other from southern Virginia very near the border with North Carolina. The family from South Carolina has had two tragedies attributed to guns. One, a young nephew of my brother in law, accidentally shot and killed his sister when disobediently playing with his father's gun. Two, my own nephew, someone who loved the outdoors, hunting and fishing, committed suicide with his hunting rifle. The other family from southern Virginia was military and the grandfather wound up committing suicide in his old age. Nobody else in my family does anything with guns at all, three of whom are ex-Navy. Correspondingly they have had no gun related tragedies. So in my perception, even if not all white gun owners are hicks or criminals they still have an increase of gun violence.
4) The 2nd amendment really does say "a well regulated militia." Even though the punctuation is ambiguous, the idea is there. It doesn't say every individual is entitled to have a rapid firing powerful weapon that can mow down dozens of people in seconds. This was back when people brought their own guns to the fight. I mean if we go to original intent, these guys were talking about muskets! You know guns that took time to reload and weren't all that accurate. War back then was not nearly as bloody and as lethal as it is now. The country was also largely rural without a police force, everyone having to hunt for food and defend one's self against wild animals, Indians, outlaws, etc.
5) I think though the horse is out of the barn. I don't know how to take back the guns with causing a civil war. Every time there is a tragedy the sale of guns goes up, not down. People do want the ability to defend themselves. They get scared. If the bad guys have guns then they want them too.
6) I am for gun control but I think gun control advocates are really lousy at what they do. Spectacularly so. Just like the healthcare thing, I basically distrust them because I think there is a pretty obvious agenda lurking behind their cause. Healthcare brought us aggression against the 1st amendment and our free exercise of religion. Just exactly the way those who feared it would said it would. In the same way, people who are for gun control aren't strong on protecting most constitutional rights. It seems like they are very interested in curtailing the freedoms of citizens and growing a big, statist, central government. I think a lot of times the gun control folks misrepresent things too. They are very propagandistic. If you really, really want gun control be reasonable and don't demonize the other side. That's how people work together.
7) On the other hand the NRA is too absolutist in its approach. Everything is a slippery slope to them. But reasonable compromise does not necessarily mean stripping the 2nd Amendment of any meaning. They demonize the other side too. Just quit it y'all! Too many people are dying! Realize that both sides have their reasons and those reasons have merit. Reasonable people can differ, but reasonable people can also compromise so that both sides feel confident they are being heard and respected.
Respect. That is what is missing.
8) One idea I've had that I've probably said before is that maybe guns should be handled the way driver's licenses are handled. You have to be trained, you have to pass a test, you can temporarily get your license suspended for any serious infractions, but you get your day in court to argue against it if you feel it is unfair, you have to renew the license every so often and pass another test. You can even permanently lose your license too in rare cases. We don't go around railing against how the DMV infringes on our constitutional right to travel, do we? No. We recognize that we need a lot of regulation to keep things moving and as safe as possible, even though thousands of people die each year by car. Guns, like cars are inherently dangerous and take a toll on our society. A really bad toll where citizens and police are practically at war with each other. It makes perfect sense to try to regulate them to make a dangerous situation as safe as possible, knowing that there will be inevitable death and injury, just like with cars.
