Why should millions of law abiding gun owners need to have further regulation forced upon them because people that aren't going to obey ANY laws any way are going to do bad things with guns? Where is the logic in that?
Suicides are a different matter. Iโm talking about homicides. Specifically mass homicides, like school shootings or Vegas.
Raising the bar. Removing the low hanging fruit. Making it more difficult.
I donโt pretend to be an expert on firearm stats. I do have some street cred in information security and computer crime, so let me make an analogy:
First of all, there is no such thing as a perfectly secure system. Closest youโll ever get to it is if you build a fortified structure, put the computer in it, remove it from the network(s), and destroy all access to the facility.
Pretty darned secure, but not practical.
So the name of the game is โrisk managementโ. What steps can we take to lower the risk of our data or systems being compromised?
Nothing is 100% foolproof, but each layer we put in place makes it less likely that the system will be compromised. And thatโs how itโs done,
Raise the bar. Remove the low hanging fruit. Rinse and repeat.
Iโm looking at the mass homicide issue from a risk manager standpoint. What weapons were used and would the results have been different with a different weapon? What were the characteristics and motives of the perpetrators? How did they obtain the weapons? What differences could have have positively affected the outcome?? How do we lower the risk?
If someone doesnโt have criminal connections - no criminal history, law abiding family, no friends with connections - right off the bat itโs harder for them to get a weapon illegally. Most of these troubled kids donโt have a lot of friends. Sure, you can go on the internet, but where? How do you know youโre not walking into a police sting? Chances are youโre leaving a trail of activity too. The more you advertise your intent, the greater chance someone will see it and say something.
(Obviously if sale of weapons online is the weak link, law enforcement needs to step up efforts there.)
Countries that increased regulation on gun ownership (Australia) saw gun homicide rates go down. Ours are currently pretty bad. Start somewhere.
As I said, there is no 100% solution. But is your not being inconvenienced more important than someoneโs life?
Doing nothing isnโt working.
