THREAD: Just for the record, here's my solution. To own a gun, you have to have a license. To get the license you have to pass a safety exam and a background check.
For every gun you buy, the serial number is applied to your license. You are responsible for the numbers on your license. Every one of them. If you sell the gun, it has to be to someone else with a license, and the serial number gets transferred to their license.
If you get convicted of a violent felony or domestic abuse, the government can revoke your license and confiscate your guns. Since the serial numbers are attached to the license, it's easy enough to know if you got them all.
If someone has cause for concern (such as many just did) they can report it, and the state can have the case reviewed before a judge to see if a person's license should be stripped. If the judge determines it, no more guns for Mr. Sociopath.
If you are caught in possession of an unregistered gun, it should be a mandatory two-year prison sentence. One thing we need to do is make it so that owning a gun illegally has a much harsher penalty.
If a gun is registered to you, and you didn't report it sold/stolen, the law should allow you to be tried for reckless endangerment or manslaughter if the state can prove you were aware the gun was missing and you didn't report it or sold it without proper precautions.
The incredible thing about our current system is it puts the onus of determining whether second-hand guns are bought by criminals on the criminals. Second-hand gun sellers have no obligation to ensure the buyer is buying legally. That must change.
There will be some paranoid conspiracy nutters who will say that this will just give the Feds a registry of gun owners so they know who to come for first. I just don't care about your koo-koo nonsense. Real problems supersede your fake ones.
I think that's a pretty simple solution that would save a lot of lives. It would make it harder for criminals to get guns, and actually easier for law-abiding citizens with licenses to get them.
It just puts more responsibility on gun owners, but they SHOULD bear the responsibility since they're the ones who own the guns.
