Seven people shot dead in Half Moon Bay, CA today Jan. 23, 2023

@SusanInFlorida they murdered people for those trivial reasons. Insanity. This is why we cannot permit easy access to very dangerous semi-auto, large-magazine capacity firearms. Federal Assault Weapons Ban NOW!

@badminton the psychiatric profession has done a very poor job of detecting when their patients are homicidal maniacs. so many recent serial/mass killers were under psychiatric care before they started their rampages.

I believe guns should be regulated in a manner similar to automobiles. which will require a constitutional amendment no doubt. As I envision it

1. Standardized rules for all 50 states, same as driving.
2. Classroom instruction
3. Pass a test specifically for the kind of weapon you seek a license for: duck gun, deer rifle, handgun, whatever
4. acquire liability insurance. rates will be set by the market. An experienced duck hunter who wants a shotgun is going to pay A LOT less for insurance than some dropout in the hood who wants a cheap pistol, or some white supremacist trying to amass an arsenal of large magazine tactical weapons.
5. with license and proof of insurance, go to the gun dealer and make your purchase. details will be kept regarding your license, address, etc.

This has worked very well for motor vehicles. it won't stop gun thefts or proxy purchases or smuggling them in from mexico or canada or colombia in drug shipments, but its way better than what we have now.

@SusanInFlorida All those sound like good suggestions. No laws can stop all shooting deaths. But comprehensive gun control laws will definitely save hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives every year. And let's not forget about the thousands of people wounded and killed in gun accidents, due to lack of proper training in safe gun handling.

@badminton the "founding fathers/original intent" debate doesn't get enough discussion in the press. Gun advocates claim (with little evidence) that in 1776 gun ownerhip meant "weapons of war" by private citizens. And by extension, in 2023, that would mean combat weapons (AK47s or whatever) in the home today, "to prevent government abuses". most people find that reasoning absurd. the opposite side of the debate is that the founding fathers would be appalled at spree killers/mass shootings with high capacity weapons against an unarmed population which is peaceful and law abiding. They'd want MORE controls than the second amendment.

I"m also pro-concealed carry by well vetted, licensed individuals. experienced law enforcement. former military. that sort of things. If someone starts unloading his clip inside mcdonalds, it's nice to have some guy in another booth, who visits a gun range regularly, pull out his pistol and put him down right away. After this happens a few times the incidence of nutjobs even TRYING to take down a roomful of people will hopefully diminish.

I am NOT a fan of "open carry". I don't some high school dropout yahoo or gang banger putting his revolver on the table at mcdonalds and smirking about it.

@SusanInFlorida The gun-nuts always leave out the very first part of the 2nd Amendment: "A well-regulated militia."

@badminton that phrase has caused more debate than any other part of the second amendment. apparently it wasn't even in the first draft, and was added later. That said, apparently the founding fathers ALL had flintlocks or blunderbuss shotguns, and weren't enlisted in any actual militias. My guess is that they'd have inserted something about duck hunting, deer hunting, etc if it had come up during the discussion.

remember the several 'pistol duels' between early 19th century feuding politicians? these guys weren't in any militia either, and i don't think any arrests were made or charges filed.

in any case, we need an amendment to modify the existing second amendment. its facetious to expect 30 years of overturned local laws and executive orders are magically going to be corrected by the next local ordinance.

@SusanInFlorida As I understand it the "well-regulated militia" clause was intended to mean the states could keep their own militias when they joined the federal union. This has evolved into the National Guard system of the present.