Growing up as an American, the gun control debate has been as ubiquitous as water (and even moreso, sometimes, seeing as I grew up in drought-stricken California). It’s a conversation that is mired by lobbying, uninformed outrage, and general propaganda on behalf of both sides of the aisle. It’s also a desperate one, since almost everyone agrees that there’s a problem, it’s just that no proposal has ever been satisfactory. Personally, I think it’s because any proposal only goes as far as satisfying one swath of the political spectrum; the others are left disgruntled by this or that. They’re all half measures wherein someone always feels like the other person came out on top, and no one likes to lose when they feel like someone else won. As someone who both identifies as pretty staunchly liberal, but is also fascinated by guns from a hobbyist perspective, I’ve thought about this a lot and have had to reconcile two different parts of my ethos: guns are bad, and guns are interesting.
Then what’s my solution? How do you devise federal legislation that possibly satisfies every ideology across the contiguous United States, knowing full well that even across county lines, the politics surrounding gun legislation are vastly contentious? Well, Aesop’s The Donkey and His Masters tells us “He who tries to please everybody pleases nobody.” So how about we try to please nobody?
Displeasing The Liberals
Alright, the first step in pleasing nobody is to get the Liberals pissed off. Should be pretty easy. Here’s why: I propose that we remove all restrictions on firearms and their paraphernalia, with the exception that RPGs, HMGs, LMGs, and any fully automatic firearms should still NOT be accessible to civilians. Open carry? Legalize it. Concealed carry? Legalize it. What about the sneaky subject of bump stocks? Good question. Legalize ‘em. And here’s the kicker…
…because…
Displeasing the Conservatives
…We should hold every single person and entity legally liable for anything and everything that happens with and because of that gun and its accessories. Up to and including the death penalty (depending on the state).
“Even the seller and manufacturer?”
Even the seller and manufacturer, yes. Especially the gun manufacturer.
“How would the death penalty work for an entire corporation?”
You fucking kill them.
“That is batshit fucking crazy”
I’m a man of my word.
But seriously, the implications are extreme on both sides for a reason. Think about it: if everyone in the chain of purchase was held legally liable for all incidents involving that firearm, gun sellers and manufacturers would be a lot more choosy about who they’re selling these instruments of death to. I bet they do diligent background checks and implement stringent training courses before finalizing the transactions.
“All that would do is increase the black market sale of guns.”
The black market sale of guns is doing just swimmingly on its own. And are you implying that “law abiding citizens” who have nothing but legal intent to do with their guns would suddenly turn to the black market if all regulations on their guns and attachments were made easy and legal to purchase? If the answer is yes, then I would posit to you that such gun buyers should not be buying guns in the first place, and that they were probably already looking at illegal ways to acquire their guns, anyway.
And if a gun store or manufacturer is caught evading the rules, they get felony persecuted. Up to and including the death penalty.
Okay, wise guy, how would it work?
Here’s a scenario for you:
Gun Manufacturer (GM) makes a gun > GM sells gun to Gun Retailer (GR) > GR sells gun to Gun Owner (GO) > GO’s adult offspring steals it and uses it to murder their significant other.
GM and everyone working in it (inclusive of the manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters), GR and everyone involved in the sale (inclusive of the salesperson, the manager-on-duty, and any supervisory staff), and GO are all personally liable for the murder of the offspring’s spouse, to the furthest extent of that state’s law—up to and including the death penalty.
This would create a chain of accountability that would reeeeeeaaaaaaally make every single person involved very cautious and deliberate about to whom they sell and store their guns. After all, the Second Amendment is sacred, right?
Conclusion:
I don’t a see a problem with this solution. If there are so many law-abiding citizens being held hostage by senseless gun regulation, then it shouldn’t be a problem if they’re all held ultimately responsible for whatever happens with that gun. It would encourage better storage of those guns via safes, lock boxes, etc…, and it would even bolster the sales of previously inaccessible firearms and accessories to states where gun legislation is too “extreme.”
…Unless there’s a bigger, more cultural problem surrounding the gun control debate, and really, gun manufacturers are complicit, compassionless, capitalist leeches feeding off the bloated corpse of their fear mongering propaganda and lobbying.
But that’s not it, right? Right.