[Kaijo]

The UK, Canada, and Australia, all banned guns after a horrific shooting. Their rate of gun deaths and gun crime has dropped into the toilet.

HOWEVER!

The US has a different culture. I'm not entirely convinced banning guns would solve our problem. A lot of what makes the US different, is our culture, so rather than be on one side or the other, I am going middle of the road. And here is my thought process, and my "out of the box" ideas that may, at the very least, serve as sort of a template to get people thinking differently.

First off, there are some bills going through congress that would limit the number of bullets a gun/magazine could carry, to 10. That is still plenty for self-defense, hunting, and sports activities. All mass shooters who were stopped by other people, were stopped when they were forced to pause and reload. I am also in favor, like 80% of gun owners in the US, of closing the gun show loophole.

However, those two things aren't really addressing the problem here: mental health. The UK, Canada, and Australia have strong public health care systems, where anyone who is feeling off, can simply walk in and get treatment. So their mentally ill people are taken care of. This opens up another can of worms, because gun rights supporters tend to be people who are also against socialized health care, and yet, getting some socialized health care would treat would-be shooters before they go nuts, thus getting the populace off your back about gun regulation.

So, I have a simple proposal:

1. Require every gun owner to retake a training course and exam every 3 years.

2. The 2nd amendment refers to a "well regulated militia" so I'd require every gun owner to be a part of a local gun group. The group would be responsible for policing its members' weapons, and assessing their mental stability (and that of their families). Make sure the gun owners are storing their weapons safely and correctly, and if someone looks like they might be going a bit unstable or depressed, make sure they get the treatment they need. Work with law enforcement and health care officials to identify people

You'd take keys out of the hands of someone too drunk to drive. Take a gun out of someone too depressed or unstable to properly use them. The vast majority of legal gun owners in this country are upstanding individuals. Let's let them step up to help protect us all, because preventing a shooter from committing a massacre, is also self-defense. Even long before it gets to the part we see on the news.

The NRA has about 4 million members. There are about 30+ million gun owners in the US. So I'd like to see a grass roots gun owner lobby form, to take power away from the NRA, which greatly represents gun manufacturers these days. Anything to sell more guns, is what they go for (witness their latest statement... their answer? More guns of course!)

The right for an individual to carry a gun, is a fairly recent development (the NRA won a Supreme Court ruling in 1976 or 77). Before that, everyone knew that the 2nd amendment referred to a "well-regulated militia." I'm all for someone owning a gun, but let's take the amendment as a whole, and require a gun owner to be part of a local gun group, the modern equivalent of a militia. They'd be required to make sure their members were trained and prepared and taking proper care of their guns, just like any citizen militia group of the 1700-1800's.

Last note: If we don't get something like this, or increased socialized health care, worked out in the US, then these massacres will continue to happen. If they do, expect the populace to get so angry, that they demand a near-total banning of all guns. If you don't want it to get to that point, then support rational, reasonable "well-regulated" gun laws.