I have several guns. They have been a part of my immediate environment all of my life. I like guns. I don’t care for gun nuts or Second Amendment fanatics that display zero regard for the safety of our communities. It’s time for my fellow gun owners who have the wit to read and think outside the NRA box to take action to protect our fellow citizens.
Much of my life was spent flying airplanes. The government of our country takes great pains to ensure that pilots are prepared to conduct flight operations safely. The result is the safest transportation system available to the traveling public. Certain flights are inherently more dangerous than others. Those are even more carefully monitored to keep the uninformed and unaware out of harm’s way to the extent possible. We all, pilots and non-pilots alike, accept the necessity for those limitations and licensing as artifacts of a civilized way of life. Few would argue that everyone has an unregulated and unlimited right to fly an airplane or drive an automobile.
Fellow gun owners, it does not radiate much intelligence that we permit a loud-mouthed and ignorant band of fanatics to brand everyone who possesses a gun as an idiot and potential mass murderer. THAT is exactly what we are doing when we allow the NRA and babbling morons to symbolize gun owners.
The impact of our failure to control the ‘gun owner brand’ will be a movement to cancel the Second Amendment or to modify it considerably. Thus, our collective cowardice in the face of NRA venality and fanatical idiocy may well be a complete collapse of what we value, the right to peacefully and maturely possess firearms.
An opening move to restore the image of gun owners as sensible citizens would be to support mandated liability insurance for gun ownership. Under such a program, if one owns a functioning firearm, the weapon must be insured against the damage it might cause. Insurance companies will quickly develop a systematic examination, storage, and certification process as they are undertaking great risk. No insurance, no car ownership. No insurance, no gun ownership. Possession of an uninsured gun would, over time, become a felony.
The gun would subject to confiscation and immediate destruction.