Gun Daydreaming

[Mac-7]

Just belching a few thoughts onto the internet for me to look at in writing. I'm not expecting anything of interest or value to come from this thread.

So on a macro level, regarding guns, I'm seeing two distinct areas that we would need to address. Obviously this isn't going to happen, because neither end of the issue is willing to look in the mirror or give an inch. In other words, America can no longer fix problems. Anyway, the two distinct areas are statutory and cultural. If I had my way, which I don't, we'd run with the following:

Statutory
Start with the facts: There are nearly 400 million guns in this country, so the cat is out of the bag now and we have to deal with WHAT IS. The saying "if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns" is absolutely true and perfectly reasonable, So on the statutory side, we have to be thoughtful and fair. So let's try:

• Increasing gun purchasing minimum age to 21
• Significantly increase security at schools, with the agreement that this is a band-aid, a shorter term fix, as we address the larger issues
• Tightening gun sales laws regarding background checks, closing loopholes as tightly as possible
• Connect gun background checks with something like "PsychPro", a national mental health registry
• Look at reviewing mental health status on a regular basis (an accurate and comprehensive national database would make that easy)
• Ideas we come up with together???

Cultural
We ache for the children who die in school shootings and pay nearly zero (0) attention to those who are dying every week on the streets of Chicago and LA. We have a culture that has been in decay for decades, to pretend that it is not is blatantly dishonest, and it's clearly only feeding on itself. As a nation, and hopefully with aggressive buy-in and leadership from top cultural figures, we would do all we could to address:

• Violence and gore on television and in movies
• Violent and gory video games
• Music that glamorizes violence, drugs, death, crime, rape and misogyny, among other things
• Maintaining expectations for communities and schools to raise standards
• Holding the purveyors of the above culturally and socially accountable
• Holding political leaders accountable when they don't press the issue with constituents
• Ideas we come up with together???

Then, we wait, see how things are going, and consider whether we should also:
Some ideas could be:

• Banning assault weapons, remembering with basic intellectual honesty that they are not the muskets to which the Founders referred
• Statutory controls on entertainment content (not fond of this one, but...)
• Assigning legal responsibility to parents for the actions of their children after a certain stage (ditto)
• Ideas we come up with together???

There. Again, this ain't gonna happen. We lack the ability now. Just daydreaming a bit.

Notice ole mac1958 says nothing about mandatory jail time for mere illegal procession of a firearm

And by mandatory I mean the charge cant be dropped by liberal DA’s or judges

Get caught with a gun illegally and its 3 years in jail with no time off

That would do more to reduce gun violence than any of mac1958’s ideas