A private citizens plan for reducing gun violence.
1. Ban all gun "free" zones. These will prevent all law abiding citizens from being disarmed in public, and make it so they can fight back. All major attacks have been in "gun" free zones, they are part of the problem, not a solution. Attacks won't happen when people don't know who is packing or you see people openly carrying.
2. Return marksmanship and gun safety class to the school curriculum, starting with grade school level. Show the general public that guns in themselves aren't evil and scary. Also teach respect for something that is dangerous when poorly handled (you can say the same thing about cars), but perfectly safe when handled properly. This should include urban and suburban areas as well (I know a few rural areas never stopped with this education).
Also if marksmanship is taught in school, maybe gun (bad) handling and posturing won't look so "cool" to the gang banger and other idiot types. Part of today's problem is few people actually know much about guns and more importantly BASIC gun safety.
All citizens should have basic gun safety lessons even if they don't want to handle weapons. Just look at the typical anti-gunner when they touch a gun, some really bad handling and poor safety on their part. If you don't like guns thats ok, but at least know how they are handled safely.
3. Repeal all unconstitutional gun laws. That would be probably 99% of gun laws on the books today. Also the few gun laws that remain should be at the state level to reduce complexity. The federal government and local levels should have no say. Another major problem gun owners have are the dizzyingly array of local laws that are confusing to say the least. They all need to be repealed. The laws should be the same over a whole state, not different on one side of a street because its in a different town. And there should be very few laws to begin with, mostly on the common sense safety issue (like discharging a gun in a crowded area).
4. All fifty states should accept all states gun licenses like they do with drivers licenses. It's insane that there is all different amounts of accepting or rejecting (Illinois for example accepts no other states at all). Imagine if states rejected all out of state drivers licenses, that is nuts, its the same with gun licensing.
5. At some point licensing should be repealed. No list of gun owners should be kept by the government at any level. The only list that can be kept is a list of mentally ill that cannot handle guns, or criminals that used guns in crimes (most convictions should not get you on the list). It should be hard to be put on that list and no one government agency should be allowed to put people on it without due process. There needs to be an appeal system (probably within the court system) and the burden should be on the state (not the other way around) to the reason why someone should not own a gun. This will be the hardest part to control as anti-gunners will use it to try to put millions on such a list. When a gun is purchased, if you don't show up on the list, you get your gun immediately. It should be free to access by anyone and not require a gun dealer to do so.
6. Retired military should be allowed to keep their issued rifle or sidearm if they chose to, like they do in Switzerland. I know many retired talk about how they would have loved to have kept a weapon they liked in the service. That should be a bonus of serving.
7. And lastly personal responsibly. You are responsable for your own safety and actions. If you use a gun in a crime, you should be prosecuted for that crime, not because of the gun. If you didn't have that gun you would have likely used a knife or even a board with a nail in it. The gun doesn't make you a criminal. The crime you commit makes you one.
Also there need to be reform of the mental health system. Per say its not a gun issue but its something that needs to be dealt with. The government of course has failed miserably at it, maybe even to the point of allowing it to push gun control.
