Regulate firearms like automobiles

Eric Garland Government Trends

A very special policy analyst stopped by my Facebook discussion thing (featuring extra rants!)  last night to say that all gun laws change nothing except to ruin the lives of hamsters and – HEY! – what about cars, which kill more people? Don’t change anything about guns until you finally get around to making laws for killer cars!

This is a brilliant idea.

First, just by way of trivia, this year firearm deaths will surpass automobile deaths in the U.S. Otherwise – what an amazing suggestion to harmonize the regulations around firearms with those already in effect for cars! Let’s recap what we do for cars, which kill around 32,000 people a year.

  • Every car is registered with a special ID number which is logged in a Federal Gubmint database so they know who owns what and exactly where they live.
  • You have to be examined by a government agency, the employees of which will judge whether you are knowledgeable or competent enough to drive. They reserve the right to deny you this privilege or to limit your use of cars to a certain time of day.
  • The police can pull over your automobile based on the merest suspicion of wrongdoing and charge you hundreds of dollars in fines if your car is not in safe, functional condition.
  • Each person is legally required to carry liability insurance because of the collective threat posed by automobiles. You don’t get excused from this because you are a “law-abiding” driver.
  • The federal government forces manufacturers to keep innovating the latest technologies for human safety and the environment.

So what a great suggestion! Let’s not simply “restrict” some types of firearms – as this fellow suggested, let’s keep a federal database of who has what, license them based on basic fitness to operate them safely, have random investigations by government agents, have the US government sanction gun manufacturers who sell weapons without the latest safety features, and finally, force all gun owners to pay liability insurance to cover the $50 billion in collective costs from damage caused by the world’s largest civilian arsenal.

Thanks for the inspiration, dude!