"A modest gun-safety proposal"

From Sheldon Richman at Reason:

I think the “gun-safety” crowd — they seem not to like the term “gun control” anymore — need to think bigger. Enough with the roundabout measures. Let’s get to the heart of the problem: the intention to commit crimes with a gun. 

Congress should pass a law forthwith requiring every gun buyer to declare whether or not he intends to commit a crime with the gun. If a would-be buyer says yes, he would be denied a gun and his declaration should be publicized far and wide so that no one else will sell him a gun. The government could even set up a website with the names of all would-be buyers who declared their intention to commit a crime with a gun. This would ensure that even black-market dealers would refuse to sell guns to these people. Knowledge is power. And if a gun dealer sells a gun to a self-declared criminal, he would be charged as an accessory. That would deter even black-market dealers. 

But what if a would-be buyer lies about his intentions? Let’s have stiff penalties for lying on the declaration form. I’m sure that anyone planning to commit murder or armed robbery would be stopped by the threat of jail time for lying about that intention. 

This, of course, doesn’t address the full problem. What about the Adam Lanzas who take their parents’ guns? Since they don’t present themselves to a gun seller, how would they be required to declare their intentions? 

Here’s the solution: All gun owners should be required to keep their guns under lock and key at the local police station. Whenever they, or members of their families, want to use a gun — say, in self-defense against an armed home invader — they would have to sign a declaration of intent. Guns would be issued only to those who declared they have no criminal designs. 

This seems a far more effective way to keep guns out of the wrong hands than mere background checks and weapons bans. Since that’s what the “gun-safety” lobby says it wants, let’s see if they go for this modest proposal. It would target only the criminally minded, not the law-abiding among us, so the lobby should have no problem with these measures. Gun-safety advocates certainly cannot claim these requirements would not work, because then they would have to admit that the proposals they favor also would not work. 

If we can’t count on gun buyers to declare honestly if they have criminal intentions, how can we count on them not to buy guns in background-check-free zones?

Heh.

The irrationality of gun-control schemes is breath-taking. Obviously people who intend to do harm with guns won't get their guns via means that will subject them to checks. It ain't rocket science.

The simple explanation for this gun-control idiocy is that liberals are jerks, which is obviously true.

But there's a method here, too. Liberals are the cause of most gun crime in America, in the important sense that nearly all gun crime is committed in cities governed wholly by liberals. If liberals know how to stop gun crime, the liberals governing Chicago and Detroit and Houston and New Orleans and Washington DC are sure keeping their effective policies a big secret.

By blaming gun crime on law-abiding Americans-- conservatives of the NRA persuasion-- the Democrat gangsters who govern our big city shooting galleries can keep the conversation away from the real cause of gun crime: liberal government of big cities.