| This node is part of the 13 challenges for the 13th generation.
Problem:
Gun violence is slowly destroying the American dream and is driving a crime spree that costs the country over $650 billion a year in police, private security, and lost productivity.
Solution:
As part of a comprehensive control strategy, require an owner's license and registration of gun transfers.
What gives? Americans are shooting each other by the thousands every year - and virtually every poll shows stron public support for regulating handguns and semiautomatics- yet it took Washington almost seven years to pass the Brady Bill's seven-day waiting period for the purchase of guns.
If we're going to get at the root of the problem, we'll have to learn to treat a gun just like the other deadly weapon consumers regularly purchase: a car. That means gun ownership and sales should be subject to restrictions similar to those placed on the sales and ownership of cars.
Such restrictions must include two key requirements:
- A person must obtain a handgun license to possess a handgun or ammunition;
- Anyone selling or giving away a gun must register the transfer with a state agency (just as you do when swapping the title for a car).
Failure to register the transfer would make you eligible for state prosecution that could result in a tough prison term. Legislating that kind of direct personal responsibility would make gun owners far more cautious about who has access to their guns (and who they might sell them to).
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