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“Like, we could raise the age limit at which you buy a gun. It’s — this kid was 18. You could raise it to 21..."

After changing the voting age from 21 to 18, you cannot take away Constitutional rights from 18 year olds. This is not a regulation, it's a ban. A regulation only lays out a process for exercising your rights. A ban infringes on your rights.

Why don't you also try to take away the college snowflakes' 1st amendment right to peaceably assemble or speak out in public and then see what happens?

Why not take away 4th amendment privacy protections and 5th amendment due process rights from 20 year olds?

Here is a simple idea that I think will curb school shootings by loner teenagers and is 100% constitutional:

2nd Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article I Section 8:

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Federalist #29:

Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.

Here is my solution:

Based on the points in Federalist #29, require a proficiency certificate for the weapon being purchased to be included in the paperwork to purchase a firearm.
- If you buy a shotgun, you need a shotgun proficiency certificate for the model or general type being purchased.
- If you buy a handgun, you need a proficiency certificate for the model or general type being purchased.
- If you buy a long gun, you need a proficiency certificate for the model or type being purchased.
One proficiency certificate may be used for unlimited purchases of the stated model or type of weapon, but only for that type of weapon.
The issuance of proficiency certificates will be licensed out to private shooting ranges, similar to how states license private mechanics to do annual automobile inspections.
- Private shooting ranges will have many types of guns available for rent or purchase. It should not be too much of a burden for a person to go to a range, take a simple class on the use of the weapon, demonstrate proficiency in using that weapon safely, and then receive a legal Proficiency Certificate from a licensed expert at the shooting range.
- Government agencies will be prohibited from issuing proficiency certificates. We all know how government agencies would slow-walk this kind of paperwork to stop people from getting guns.
Proficiency Certificates will have an expiration date not less than five years (amateur radio licenses must be renewed after 10 years). An expired certificate will not stop someone from legally using their weapon, but no additional weapons of that model or type may be purchased until the proficiency certificate is renewed.

What this solution will do is stop an 18-year-old (or anyone) from simply walking into a sporting goods store to buy several rifles. That teenager will first have to go to a shooting range, meet with the operators of that range, take a simple class, use the weapon on their range, and receive a Proficiency Certificate.

If instructors at the range have doubts about that teenager's mental state, they don't have to issue the certificate. That's a red flag right there. If the instructors don't have doubts and do issue the certificate, all it does is slow down the process and add a third party to the process to observe the character and state of mind of the person seeking to purchase the weapon.

To me, this is no different than flight instructors raising red flags about students who don't want to learn how to take off or land, but just fly in cruising mode. A gun proficiency instructor would similarly look for signs that someone seeking a gun is unstable and alert authorities.

I'm not saying that this is 100% perfect. I can foresee someone going "gun-range shopping" until they find an instructor who is willing to issue the certificate; at least that slows down the process and adds more people into the loop. But I do believe it is constitutional to insert this one step into the process of purchasing a firearm without it becoming a slippery slope to banning guns or building a national gun registry that could be used for door-to-door gun confiscation.

-PJ