I trust you will be starting threads of the benefits of… Knives …motor vehicles …Blunt objects …poisons?
Personally, I think gun ownership should be regulated like cars. Training, testing, registration and insurance required.
This, 1000%! Without the insurance part, though. So maybe 995%
Drives me nuts how many people in Florida get a gun and when you ask them how often they train, or anything about their training, then shrug and have no idea. I've gone to the range so many times and watched people warily as they attempt to handle their firearm and I'm cringing. Some ranges I don't even bring my son to because the RSO doesn't have tight control over the environment and the idiots with their firearms are being overtly unsafe with their handling.
Come to think of it, I once visited a gun range in Collier County, FL. The employees there can get busy, making it tougher to ensure people on the range are minimally competent? They allowed me to fire a gun, a total newbie, without any tough questions. I probably “Swept” multiple people without realizing that was a thing. What do you believe it would take to make gun ranges safer and by extension some of the gun owners that frequent them?
There's a lot in this. First, you're correct, lots of Republicans don't support background checks. But there are a lot that do. Many states require the sale of a gun to have a background check, and some do not. Of those that do, despite requirements, they don't enforce it (which is the same as simply not requiring it). All firearm sales and transfers should be done via an FFL. Period.
But holding people responsible - criminally - for legitimate theft that occurs to their firearms isn't fair, in my opinion. If I secure my firearm in my safe, which is bolted to the ground, and somehow someone manages to get a hold of it, I shouldn't be held accountable unless I don't report the theft immediately.
True,but still way way to many compared to other similar countries.When accounting for population growth, gun deaths even with mass shootings have declined.
As well it should be. We need guns to be able to protect ourselves.
How many crimes and deaths have been thwarted by legal gun use?