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Regulate Firearms Firearms regulation (referred to by media and politicians as "gun control") is a hotly debated topic bereft of good ideas. Aside from Second Amendment considerations, the only important question is whether additional regulation would succeed in reducing gun violence. Many regulation proponents frankly fear and loath guns (except their personal firearms) and would like to see them eliminated entirely. This is unrealistic, and so we may dismiss this group entirely. The anti-regulation side reminds us that gun violence is higher today than a century ago, when guns were more freely available. (In fact, in spite of the news reports, gun violence has been falling steadily in recent years, and when gang activity is omitted, the figures are even lower, by some 60%.) Firearms are a permanent part of the American scene. So how can we further reduce their criminal misuse? The best proposal is to treat guns as motor vehicles. However, those who are making this proposal can't really mean it, because not only is it a good idea, it actually preserves the rights of gun owners while enabling carrying of firearms in many places where they are currently prohibited. Look at motor vehicles. The vehicle is registered and the driver is licensed. This two-prong regulation exists for one reason only: the vehicles are operated on public roads. Thus the owner of the roads (the government) protects the users of the roads (us) by trying to ensure that the equipment is safe, taxes are paid, and the operators are qualified (the extent to which it succeeds is another issue). The government doesn't care about the farmer's teenager driving a pickup inside a fenceline, and if it did, it wouldn't matter, since the government's authority ends at the public road's edge. The same applies to racecars, which are neither registered nor are the drivers licensed -- these matters are of interest of the race organizers and the track owners, not the government. Let's allow the government to extend a similar authority over firearms. We have a right to keep and bear arms, but society has a right to regulate the use of these arms in public. This means that when a gun owner walks off his property onto public property, he must abide by the rules of the owner of the property -- neither an unfamiliar nor unreasonable concept. |