I’d invite a group of upto 500 volunteer militia men from across the country to a Marine Corps base training field with whatever civilian-legal arms firearms they want. Then, tell them they have a month to prepare. Once ready, I’d unleash a Marine Air Ground Task to bomb and shell the shit out of them. Then, release a few recon units and snipers to take out the lucky stragglers. Lastly, get on tv and say, “So you want firearms to protect yourself from the US government, huh? That was just one branch. Imagine if we used the Navy and Air Force too.”

/j I wouldn’t really do this, but it’s a fun thought experiment.

That’s not enough support to be able to handle the gun control question. The supreme court is the real key. In theory it should be possible to pass sane gun control laws but over the years the supreme court has bent itself into pretzels trying to interpret any random yahoo with an AR-15 as being a “well-regulated militia.”

Muzzle-loading, bayoneted smoothbore rifles are okay.

Heavy restrictions on anything else.

There’s almost no wrong answer when the previous answer was “nothing”

Oh, this is fun!

• Repeal the NFA of 1934.

• Repeal the GCA of 1968

• Pass laws preventing states and localities from passing laws more restrictive than federal laws in regards to gun control. Overturn the post-'86 FOPA ban.

• Place firearms under the purview of the CPSC in regards to user safety

• Amend the constitution to remove birthright citizenship

• Amend the constitution to grant 1st class citizenship only to people that elect to serve the gov’t where needed for a full four year term; a position might be civil or military, and is solely based on your abilities and gov’t need, but all people will be eligible to serve, and granted the opportunity to serve, even if it means that a position must be created specifically for them.

• -People shall be permitted to leave service at any time, regardless of whether or not they have completed their term of service. People may be thrown out of service (effectively court martialed) for refusing to perform, gross negligence, etc.

• -No people actively in service shall be permitted to vote or have any say in gov’t policy.

• -Amend the constitution such that only people that have served shall be eligible for any elected or appointed position within the gov’t, to vote, to write model legislation, to serve as judges, etc. (The majority of the gov’t would likely be comprised of people serving in order to gain citizenship.)

• Amend the constitution so that 2A rights will on exist for citizens (including people working as police!).

• Amend the constitution to only allow ranked-choice voting in all elections, federal, state, and local.

• Amend the constitution to eliminate qualified immunity.

• Revoke the citizenship of any person found guilty of committing a violent crime (battery, sexual assault, robbery, murder). Citizenship can only be regained by re-entering gov’t service.

ALL other civil rights will still exist for 2nd class citizens; free speech, press, religion, 5a rights, privacy, reproductive care, etc.

• Increase marginal income tax rates to 99% on all income over 250M
• Institute a wealth tax on all wealth controlled (not “owned”) of >$500M; for tax purposes, assets in a blind trust would still be controlled, real estate holdings controlled through a majority interest in a corporation would be considered controlled, etc.
• Restructure corporate taxes; have a claw-back period of 25 years for companies that elect to move headquarters outside of the US.
• Eliminate and ban all public funding for any private educational institution.
• Eliminate property taxes as the method of funding schools; fund schools on a national level, with locality-adjusted per-student funding to ensure that all schools–regardless of location–were receiving comparable funding
• Ban all flat and strict percentage taxes (e.g., sales taxes, VAT, etc.), or the use of fee for gov’t services; use income/wealth taxes and treasury bills only for all gov’t funding (e.g., eliminate all regressive taxes)
• Reform criminal justice to focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment
• Base fines on income/wealth; more wealth = higher fines (e.g., a millionaire could get a speeding ticket costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, while a minimum wage worker would get a fine of perhaps $50 for an otherwise identical offense)
• National single-payer health care
• Give HUD the ability to override local zoning to place high-density housing where needed.
• Require the IRS to confiscate assets from and shutter religious institutions that engage in direct politicking (e.g., endorsing any candidate, political issue, etc.).

Etc.

I don’t believe in gun control per se.

Since we’re in a complete fantasy land I’d get all the fairies, brownies, and other small folk to steal the brass from all the ammunition in the world and turn it into a giant statue. Then I’d have ghosts haunt anyone who has a gun so they’re always aware that death is with them. The ATF would be staffed by vampires and trolls.

I’d make gun owners liable for any crime committed with a gun registered to them. If they can’t keep their gun locked in a gun safe, they’re negligent. A car is not a safe. It has glass windows, not steel walls. We have car titles. We can have gun titles.

I’d also make ongoing, regular training required. Let’s say once every few months, you have to go to a range and target shoot with your local club. I think that would solve a lot of problems at once. Disturbed people would have to be around sane people a bit. (Hopefully, they make friends but truly dangerous people would get red flagged.) You wouldn’t have as many idiots in gun brawls hitting innocent bystanders. Even normal, responsible gun owners would benefit since it’d be a reminder to maintain their guns and an opportunity to learn from more experienced marksmen.

This is less practical but I’d also love to see a ban on certain guns from being taken off private property (or some similar rule) without it being disabled somehow. I’m not sure that would be possible (technically or to enforce) but I think that would help with the “moron buying an AR with an extended clip” issue while still allowing people with legitimate use cases to protect their livestock or hunt.

Basically, I want every gun fired to be done so accurately and with the intent of the owner. I’m not sure my ideas would get us there but that’s the broader goal I’m aiming for. (Pun not intended).

There’s a whole lot of gun laws and regulations that fall on the states, the courts, and the ATF, so even with the president and Congress on the same page, a lot of stuff can’t really get done easily, so I’m going to assume that the question is more “you can wave a magic wand and set the gun laws however you want them”

1. We’re pretty much going back to square one with basic definitions about what even is a firearm. No more “muzzle loaders aren’t firearms,” type bullshit. If there’s combustion propelling a projectile it’s a firearm. Depending on how technology advances, we also need to consider how we’re going to regulate things like rail/coil guns should those ever become widespread, and it may be worth lumping certain types of air gun into the category as well.

2. No private sales or transfers. Everything gets the full background check, no excuses. We’re also making those transfers free, available in more places (instead of going to a gun shop you can do them at a police station, with a notary, the DMV, post offices, etc.)

3. We’re tightening up that background check, getting all states on the same page about what sort of offenses disqualify someone from owning a firearm, how those offenses are reported, etc. officers, clerks, judges, whatever who drop the ball on making sure those offenses are reported correctly face big-time criminal liability if someone uses a gun in a crime that they purchased legally but shouldn’t.

4. More uniformity between different state laws, we need all of our systems working together seamlessly, a firearm that would make someone a felon in one state shouldn’t be legal to walk around with the next state over. We need to expand a whole lot of circumstances that would prevent someone from owning a gun (I work in 911 dispatch, we have some regulars in my area that police are at their home every week or even every night that we have caution notes attached to their addresses that someone there owns a gun or multiple guns despite the fact that they’re constantly getting into fights with their family, neighbors, seem to be constantly drunk out of their minds or are suffering from significant mental health problems. We need some way of separating those kinds people from their guns.)

5. We’re overhauling healthcare, and including mental healthcare along with regular physical healthcare. It’s going to be totally funded by the government, no out of pocket costs. It’s going to become as normal to go in to see a shrink once a year or so for a mental health check-up whether you’re having problems or not as it is to go in for your annual physical. You need a clean psych screen within the last year before any gun purchase, transfer, ammo purchase, or to renew a carry permit (which under point 4, enjoys complete reciprocity among all US states and territories) and under certain circumstances your doctor can advise the police that you’re a danger and they should remove any weapons you own.

6. Training, again free. No purchases or incoming transfers without a gun safety course. No carry permits without a more advanced course that also covers a whole lot legal, liability , moral, and ethical issues and a stringent marksmanship test.

7. You can get rimfire weapons, or manually-operated center-fire rifles and shotguns at 18. 21 for semi auto. We’re keeping the general NFA framework for machine guns intact but we’re raising the cost of the tax stamp drastically, legal NFA items are used in a vanishingly small percentage of crime, they’re not a major public safety issue, they’re more of a luxury good and a collectors item, so people can pay a big premium if they want one. We’re also moving all of the non-machine gun NFA items into the regular 21+ category, there’s too much hazy bullshit about short barreled rifles/shotguns and handguns that are functionally exactly the same but legally different because reasons. They’re all the same thing now. Silencers/suppressors are already pretty damn available under the NFA in most states to anyone who wants them and doesn’t mind jumping through a couple hoops, and again don’t get used in many crimes, and there’s some good arguments to be made for them being used to help protect hearing for recreational shooting. Things like binary triggers and bump stocks are getting regulated as machine gun parts, along with obvious examples like auto sears and lightning links because that’s what they’re trying to do while skirting the law.

8. Regarding “ghost guns” we’re going to call 80% receivers/frame guns now, they need to be serialized and those making and selling them needgo through all of the other hoops a regular gun manufacturer would need to go through. If you want to mill your own gun from a block of metal, or 3d print one, or cobble one together from plumbing parts, you also need to serialize it and submit records that that gun now exists. We can’t really do anything to enforce that at the point of manufacture, but if it turns up used in a crime we want to have some hope of tracing it and holding people responsible who allowed it to end up there. Really all gun parts except for basic screws, pins, etc. should be serialized and recorded the same way.

9. Storage- locks are mandatory when the gun is not under your direct supervision, and at home you must have a proper gun safe to store them. No leaving firearms in your vehicle regardless of how well you’ve hidden it, or what kind of safe you’ve bolted into your center console or glove box. Again, we can’t really enforce that until that gun ends up stolen or some kid gets ahold of it and shoots themselves or their friend, but it gives us an avenue to hold people responsible when that does happen. If you don’t store it properly and something happens, you’re facing jail time.

10. We’re doing some major lobbying reforms so that gun manufacturers and organizations like the NRA can’t basically just buy politicians anymore. Really, the NRA probably needs to be disbanded after the maria butina thing.

11. Cops have to jump through the same hoops as everyone else when they’re not on duty. No carrying around your duty weapon if you’re not on the clock. No exceptions that they can carry a firearm without a regular carry permit, no “no firearms allowed except for LEOs” type policies. If they’re not working, they’re not a cop.

I don’t think the premise holds water.

How can one have congressional support for an issue which actually helps people? Is helping people, in this instance, the most profitable choice for the individual representative? Because they do not care about the betterment of humankind, and they are no longer beholden to the people. The representative at large is a warmongor, an oil baron beneficiary, a gun lobby shill, a two-bit huckster, a thief, and an active erodor of democratic principles. There is no such thing as congressional support among two opposing parties, whose real goals both are aligned against the people, in that, again… If helping people isn’t the number one most convenient, profitable, best way to get somebody else’s ass kissed, it ain’t even a priority. We need to do something about the fascism problem first, then melt the guns into participation trophies for the men who carry them now. Problem solved.

Step 1 - Assume the 2nd Amendment is not going ANYWHERE. You need 290 votes in the House, 67 in the Senate and ratification from 38 states to change it.

It’s not going ANYWHERE.

Now then…

Step 2 - We need to fund a department that engages in a shooting by shooting analysis to determine what went wrong and how to fix it, knowing, going in, that banning guns isn’t an answer.

For example:

The recent Kansas City shooting:

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article285817466.html

"Roughly three years before Lyndell Mays allegedly pulled a gun at the Kansas City Chiefs victory rally and fired, the 23-year-old was a suspect in another incident involving a firearm displayed in a public place.

For the offense, to which Mays pleaded guilty, a municipal judge ordered 90 days in jail plus two years of probation. The period of probation took effect Feb. 8, 2022, and sunset six days before Mays allegedly set off a chain of gunfire that left 25 people shot, including several children and a bystander who died."

The way the law works now, felons can’t own guns, but it SOUNDS like he was not previously charged with a felony. 90 days in jail + 2 years probation sounds like a large misdemeanor charge.

So how about this:

If it’s a gun charge, you’ve already proven you can’t be trusted with a gun. Misdemeanor, felony, doesn’t matter, no guns for you.

To finish your probation, you turn in all your guns and submit your residence to a search for weapons.

This would also have applied to the Michigan State shooter:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Michigan_State_University_shooting

Previous conviction on a missemeanor gun charge, did his time, did his probation, got a clean background check, bought a gun and shot up the place.

Something that starts from a drivers licensing model

• age limitations
• limitations based on previous history of unsafe behavior
• required education
• required demonstration of safe gun handling/storage skills and knowledge of applicable laws
• different levels of license endorsement, e.g., licensed for 1 gun, 2-5 guns, or 6+ guns, types/sizes of guns,
• license based on conditions in which they can be used, aka, easier to get a license limited to hunting with a shotgun than concealed carrying a pistol
• background check for any and all sales or transfers of ownership between anyone not in a parent/child/sibling relationship
• remove barriers to suing gun sellers who don’t abide by sales/background check rules when the buyer ends up using the gun to hurt people. Maybe even go so far as to define their level of liability
• remove barriers to suing people who don’t properly store their guns, and lead to gun access by someone who uses it to cause harm, and again, maybe defining some default level of liability
• requirement for gun owners to carry liability insurance
• halt sales of guns from US to known cartels under the bullshit guise of anti-terrorism/anti-drug ops
• funded auditing program at the federal level designed to monitor chain of gun manufacturers to dealers to customers to ensure compliance with licensing requirements

Now the question of how to do all this in a way that wouldn’t get shut down as federal overreach into issues that should be managed by states… Oh, yeah, interstate commerce. Gun control is a more logical application for the interstate commerce clause than how Republicans are prepping to use it for women running from one state to another for abortion access.

1. Ownership comes with requirements for safe and proper storage to which only you have access.

2. Weapon and ammunition that aren’t on a person has to be stored separately.

3. The anovebtwo rules aren’t enforced/checked. But it’s still a legal requirement, so if someone uses your gun or ammunition for a crime, you will be considered an accomplice. Either intentionally or due to gross negligence.

…it’s not a fix, but having responsible gun owners is a start.

Tax the rich and/or defund military or police just enough to pay for decent healthcare and mental health services in this country. Can’t have responsible citizens if you’re driving them to the brink of insanity- these conditions are intentional so the state can turn the mentally ill into free labor in prisons and maintain a military force against the people at large.

1st, do 3 things:

1. get the evidence, and make it indellibly-obvious.

Toddlers killed by guns, 3-5yo killed, do every age-group, and make it obvious.

Ttbomk, that isn’t possible, in the US, because the gun cult ( not gun lobby: when destruction-of-lives-of-children is irrelevant in protecting guns’ dominion, it’s a cult ) got collecting-statistics blocked, years/decades ago.

2. discover the right questions.

3. Keep rural & city segregated, as the issues are not identical.

Fools pretend that cities & rural are identical contexts, and they absolutely are not.

Rural need to be able to deal with rabid wildlife, sometimes.

A friend told me that a rabid fox tried killing the tractor he was operating for awhile. The farmer who’d hired him handed him a gun & showed him how to use it to kill such a thing.

Once you’ve got that set of things going, then you begin working up an Issue Diagram for the issue, based on actual information, not on ideology/prejudice.

Anyone who wants one must first get shot themself. If they survive they can get one, every additional gun afterwards requires another shot.

If you’re prepared to potentially take someone else’s life, you must be prepared to risk losing your own.

Is it sane? Fuck no, but it’s an interesting solution.