There is nothing wrong with a pragmatic, well thought out background check policy. The same for weapons training. Do you give a kid the keys to the car when they turn 16 and say, “OK, you’re on your own”?
A gun is a car without the wheels and just as deadly. I lost a good friend to a drunk driver and my son lost two of his best female friends who drove drunk and died.
Common sense is needed now more than ever. I’m pro-gun ownership by responsible people but not everyone is responsible, sensible, and basically mentally stable enough to own a gun. Criminals don’t care about any laws but we are supposed to be law abiding and supporting (when they are reasonable). Spending a little time and money for proper training is worth it, if only to prevent accidents around the house or in a car.
I don’t want to lose any good Freepers to carelessness or stupidity, nor do I want to be the victim of someone who should not have had access to a weapon because of their temperament, lack of training, or illegal activities.
All my grandchildren have been taught how to handle a gun safely and properly (their mother is NRA certified; their father a Marine combat veteran of two wars; their uncle a veteran of Iraq and a former police officer, and I taught both my kids how to shoot before they got formal training.
The problem with that is that in the era of Big Data, the government is using those background checks as potential checklists of who to come get first. Background checks, permits and registrations were used as checklists to seize guns in flooded New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. On camera, officers took an old lady’s only protection, a revolver, away from her.
They will be used that way again.
It has also been used as a list for connected criminals to know what house to go to - not avoid, go *to* to steal firearms.
We used to have firearms safety training in many schools, or families handled it. Unfortunately, the people screaming the loudest about needing to regulate guns are the ones who got firearms training removed from schools.
I would also point out that ‘trained’ personnel can be some of the worst in terms of firearms safety and usage.