Idea: Comprehensive Gun Control

By Michael Alan Prestwood

A chained up handgun kept safe from those who are a danger to society.
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Idea: Comprehensive Gun Control

For those that say we cannot do anything about gun violence, here is a list of items we can implement. This represents some of the comprehensive reform that will help keep guns out of the hands of the bad people yet allow good people to have as many guns as they want.

  1. More background checks. Pass the increased background checks Moscow Mitch is currently blocking.
  2. Replenish funds taken from Homeland Security. Bring back Homeland Security’s ability to identify white supremacist threats. In 2018, Trump signed an executive order redirecting resources away from countering anti-government, far-right and white supremacist groups.
  3. Bring back Obama’s mental ill law. Bring back Obama’s ban on gun purchases by the mentally ill. In Feb 2017, Trump signed an executive order reversing Obama’s common-sense ban. It’s true that the mentally are NOT VIOLENT and are scapegoated by Republicans. But, it’s a layer of protection, so I support it.
  4. Repeal the “Dickey Amendment”. Passed in 1997, the Dickey Amendment was a bad law. Our government currently effectively bars the national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from studying firearm violence — an epidemic the American Medical Association has since dubbed “a public health crisis.”
  5. Bring back the AWB. The Democrat’s 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban would have prevented this weekend’s death. Clinton’s Federal Assault Weapons Ban outlawed semi-automatic firearms like the AR15 that were defined as assault weapons as well as large-capacity magazines. You know, human-killing things. Weapons of war.
  6. Under 21 Federal gun Ban. If you can join the military and be killed at the age of 18, you should be allowed to buy a handgun. That’s a good argument. But, I’m still in favor of requiring some form of test or even just a ban. You want to play with guns, wait until you are 21 or join the army.
  7. Gun buyback program. An ongoing gun buyback program would get unwanted guns off the streets. Those that want guns, can have them. Manufacturers get to sell more guns because there will be a constant effort to buy guns and get them off the streets. We would offer significant money for assault and assult-like weapons.
  8. Clarify the Heller decision. The Republicans believe the recent Heller decision by the Supreme Court clarified that Federal gun control laws are unconstitutional when it only said that a law that allowed a gun for self-defense and required it be taken apart was unconstitutional. We need a test law that goes to the Supreme Court to clarify this because the Republicans are miss-using this decision for political reasons, not legal reasons.
  9. Gun insurance checks. Gun insurers require gun safes and a mental health assessment by a doctor before you can get insurance.
  10. Ban bump stocks.
  11. More red flag laws. Upon reporting to authorities, guns removed by local police from any home where an individual has received a restraining order from any state.
  12. No-fly, no buy.  No gun purchase allowed until cleared of any governmental watch list. Keep guns out of terrorist hands until they get off the watch list.
  13. Invest in smart gun technology. The NRA’s official position is that they don’t care one way or the other about smart gun tech and that the market should decide, but that’s another lie. The NRA is preventing gun makers from developing this technology.

Congress could pass a comprehensive gun control bill like this fairly quickly. I also support something like a national ID system, but I recognize that will be more difficult to pass.

Michael Alan Prestwood
Natural Philosopher

Mike’s throwback title simply means he writes about philosophy, science, critical thinking, and history with a focus on exploring boundaries and intersections. While his focus is on our rational ideas about empirical observations, he does enjoy dabbling in the irrational. His exploration of human thought led him to develop his Idea of Ideas which allows him to understand what is empirically true, rationally true, and irrationally false.

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