My take on open carry

[jimbogumbo]

Wahoo, I agree re about the mass shootings, but also seriously agree with e_p_w and Mamselle. I think Stephen King did the best job with a solution in his essay On Guns. Make the requirement that you must take and pass the NRA offered training, and be periodically checked at least as you are for a driver's license. Even better would be re-qualifying in some way similar to law enforcement requirements.

[dismalist]

I'm glad posters see the analogy between guns and cars. It is exact. Both are eminently useful and fun and kill people. Turns out the number of gun deaths and automobile deaths per year in the US is about the same. [Mass shootings actually cause few gun deaths, like 1% of them.]

Thus, all the permissions necessary to drive should reasonably be expected of gun owners. Part of those requirements for driving is liability insurance. Should be the same for shooting guns. That way each gun owner bears his share of the full cost of using the gun. Which is what's wanted, for the owner benefits from the gun.

It's probably fully legal right now to impose such a scheme: Scalia explicitly wrote in Heller that nothing in the decision should be construed as banning rules about safety.

[marshwiggle]

To be fair, I don't think it is the "open carry" bunch who are committing gun crimes.

Mass shooters tend to have their parents' legally obtained weapons or legally buy them themselves----but this is not the same as "open carry."

Criminals tend to have guns from other means.

I think we need to make the distinction.

Even though our neighborhood is pretty safe, our city is kind of scary and the drivers are insane.  We have had some gas station stick-ups and some serious gun violence on the nearest boulevard to our house.  We have a couple of guns in our home that I brought from my mother's house when my nieces were wild teenagers and I worried they might create some kind of stupid situation, but now I am very happy they are in our own house.  I broached the subject about getting a firearm to keep in the car, but my wife was not overly enthusiastic.

The main problem with this is logistical. Having a gun easily accessible in case of emergency makes it much easier to lead to an accidental shooting. There are lots of cases in the news from the US where children (often toddlers) have shot people (including siblings an parents) with the gun owned by an irresponsible adult. Having the gun stored safely to avoid this, such as with the ammunition removed, makes it much less likely to be useful in an emergency. (Any adult, up to and including a child's parent, who is responsible for this should be jailed for criminal negligence causing death to change this kind of cavalier attitude, in my opinion.)


A few years ago, I seem to recall there was a (German?) gun manufacturer producing a gun keyed to the owner's biometrics to prevent these sots of accidents and theft, but gun lobbyists in the US fought against it for fear it would allow the government to disable their guns.

[FishProf]

The main problem with this is logistical. Having a gun easily accessible in case of emergency makes it much easier to lead to an accidental shooting. There are lots of cases in the news from the US where children (often toddlers) have shot people (including siblings an parents) with the gun owned by an irresponsible adult. Having the gun stored safely to avoid this, such as with the ammunition removed, makes it much less likely to be useful in an emergency.

Jim Jeffries covers this.

[marshwiggle]

The main problem with this is logistical. Having a gun easily accessible in case of emergency makes it much easier to lead to an accidental shooting. There are lots of cases in the news from the US where children (often toddlers) have shot people (including siblings an parents) with the gun owned by an irresponsible adult. Having the gun stored safely to avoid this, such as with the ammunition removed, makes it much less likely to be useful in an emergency.

Jim Jeffries covers this.

I think I'd seen that one before. He definitely makes the point hilariously.