Subject: Re: You are your own first responder
Despite the recent tragic examples, the 50 millions or so or responsible law abiding gun owners are not the problem, and also not a problem.

I agree. But have such a wide availability of guns makes accidents and incidents (like short term temper flare ups) much more prevalent. And *that's* a problem.

Do we require a safety course for gun owners? No. Alec Baldwin should have taken one, you think? (First rule: never point at anything you don't intend to shoot.) Do we require guns to be registered so they can be tracked in the event of use in a crime? Sort of, but with loopholes big enough to drive a bullet train through. Do we allow almost any kind of gun, no matter how lethal, to be sold as commonly as toothpaste? Well no, but it feels like it.

There is no right that is absolute. Famously said (*not) 'You can't yell fire in an auditorium if there's no fire'. You can't have a religion which condones beating women and children. The police can't randomly search - unless they can because of exigent circumstances. And so on.

I have no problem with people owning guns. I have a serious problem with them owning assault rifles, bazookas, and claymore mines. I would require a safety course before the 1st gun purchase. I would require that they be locked up, or at least trigger locked* with severe penalties for accidents in which that turns out not to have been done.

While I think 'certain guns' are the problem, I really believe it's the casual attitude of some owners towards guns that is a more serious problem, and that could be dealt with easily.

There are more people killed by criminals in a long weekend in Chicago by real criminals and in all the examples you cite.

That's probably true. That means the others that could have been easily prevented don't count? That we have made non-traceable guns so common that criminals can pick them up on any street corner? That we shouldn't true to do anything?

[* for the argument 'if they're locked then I can't use them when an intruder assaults me' I merely point to those now equipped with circuitry to prevent an unauthorized user from pulling the trigger.' This seems a small issue to stop children from play with/bringing to school, and makes a lot of guns useless in the stolen/secondary market. ]