Dear Senators Cardin and Mikulski, and Representative Sarbanes:
I am enough of a realist to understand that guns will never be banned in this country. But gun ownership should come with powerful responsibilities.
It's time for gun owners and the NRA to cooperate with the rest of us and take steps to hold gun owners accountable, to properly screen and train gun owners, and to pay for the damage their gun ownership costs society. Our country incurs billions of dollars in damage, death and destruction each year due to guns. We need to hold the gun owners responsible for those costs. And it's well past time to make sure that only responsible people own guns.
The idea that anyone should be able to go out and get a gun and then use it without proper training is insane. Everyone who wants to own a gun should be required to take classes not only on its use, but also on what it can do to the human body, the decision making process for using a weapon, and police instruction on deadly force protocol.
Prospective gun owners, or current owners, should also be required to submit a clearance screening session signed by a licensed psychologist.
Gun owners should also be required to have a liability insurance policy to cover its misuse, either by the legal owner or by someone who steals or borrows it. They should be held accountable for everything that gun does under its registered ownership. In the current instance of the Newtown Tragedy, The gun-collecting mother should have had a liability policy that would cover the losses incurred by the school district, costs to local police jurisdictions, and the costs, including funerals, these parents are experiencing, plus at least a million dollars for each victim's family for pain and suffering.
It's time to end the talk about doing something. Just do something. And don't worry about whether it's constitutional. Let the Supreme Court decide that issue later.
Jake Spencer
