Every week or two, it seems we have a mass shooting of some sort. After each one of these incidents, there is a brief but intense salvo of opinions flying around -- the pro-guns vs. the anti-guns. Both sides have favorite talking points that the other side finds ridiculous. The problem is that nothing productive ever emerges from this seemingly endless and pointless tug of war. After each round of bloviating bombast, most people turn back to their everyday concerns and we leave the families of the dead to nurse the wounds of their loss.
According to the Internet, Albert Einstein once said something like this: "We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them."
I just read about an idea that lies outside the feckless back and forth rut we've gotten ourselves into. It represents a different level of thinking. I'd like to know what you all think.
In this country, we love our guns. Some people think they're necessary to maintain our freedom and safety. Perhaps they're right, and perhaps not, but a big part of freedom is having the option to live the way you want as long as you don't harm others' freedom to do the same. At its root, our current problem with firearms is the lack of accountability. I was on my lunchtime walk the other day and I encountered a young man working on his car in the street in front of his house. We exchanged a politely smiling hello as I walked past and I noticed he had a handgun casually tucked into the waistband of his sweats. The dangerous and careless insouciance he displayed with regard to his firearm is what got me thinking about accountability.
The idea I would like to present allows people to possess firearms while effectively addressing the area of accountability. You see, the big problem is that a shooter can go on a rampage and then end his own sorry life in the proverbial "blaze of glory". Or if he is disarmed in time, just gets his sorry ass thrown in jail. We can background check people until we're blue in the face, but we have no way of imposing on individuals a level of accountability that is proportionate to the power of the weapons they wield. And a jail sentence doesn't bring the victims back from the dead.
Here's my idea: if you want to own a gun, you can. To do so, you must belong to a local gun club. The gun club must be sanctioned and overseen by the NRA, which will provide an extensive training and certification framework to be used by the local chapters. Before a person may buy a gun, he or she must be admitted to the gun club, must pay modest fees and dues, must regularly attend local meetings for one year, and must pass mandatory certifications. The social connection with local members is all-important because THEY will decide if and when the person may be granted the privilege and responsibility of owning a gun and -- here's the kicker -- THEY, and the national organization, will be held financially liable for any illegal gun-related actions subsequently committed by that person. That is the key provision. Since the gun club members are seriously held accountable for their fellow gun owners, they will ensure that background checks are performed. And a year's fraternizing will constitute an extremely thorough vetting of mental health. Add to this that the gun club can revoke both the license and the weapon at any time and you have a good, thorough system for ensuring accountability and responsible ownership of these powerful weapons.
Another key provision is that the NRA must remain a private organization completely independent of government oversight and control. Its members would be licensed to carry by the NRA and the NRA alone. It would be totally accountable and empowered to control for that accountability. In essence, the NRA, through its local chapters, would possess a monopoly on non-military/non-police firearms, but it would be held totally responsible for the members' proper and legal use of those weapons. But the organization must be structured so that the local chapters, and the members, who bear the financial liability of their fellows, possess overriding control over the organization.
The law specifies the compensation accorded to victims and their families and it must be high enough to matter. The government is empowered to exact this compensation from the NRA and the certifying members, but that must be the limit of its power.
Of course this implies a draconian crack down on the part of the government to rid the country of unlicensed firearms through very generous buybacks (at first), then a period of penalty-free turn-ins, and then outright confiscation with extremely harsh penalties for non-compliance (after a reasonable period). That, I fear, is the price of accountability.
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