A Conservative In Favor of Gun Control

Gun control is only part of the violence problem in America, however.

I am a conservative, white male who votes Republican about 80% of the time. I know, it’s strange for a conservative to admit that he votes for Democrats about 20% of the time, but I actually vote for the best candidate.

I also am in favor of private gun ownership. Guns are not responsible for the obscene amount of violence and mass shootings in America.

However, there is such a thing as responsible gun ownership. That should be the goal as a fix, not outright bans on guns.

Coupled with a solution to responsible gun ownership though, there are more areas that need to be fixed than simply focusing on guns. Yes, let’s get guns taken care of, but please let’s not ignore the other challenges that go along with these last two mass shootings in America.

Since all the liberal authors will be piling on with their fixes to gun violence, i.e. take away and ban all guns, I’m going to focus on responsible gun ownership and addressing the elephant in the room.

The elephant in the room is what is going on in the hearts and minds of teenagers that their only solution is to gather as many guns and as much ammunition as possible and go find a place where they can swat down as many innocent victims as possible before they are either taken into custody to bog down the legal system or shot to death, thus ending the obvious mental health challenges not being addressed in our educational system.

First, let’s look at what responsible gun ownership looks like and simple legislation that could solve a lot of these challenges.

Gun Ownership Legislation

Yes, I am purposely labeling this “gun ownership”, rather than the liberal talking points of “gun control”. I don’t know if anybody has noticed it, but “control” is not a real popular word for most Americans.

Most Americans do not want to be controlled by their politicians. In today’s society, most Americans want politicians to make life comfortable for them. Control isn’t comfortable.

Therefore, let’s change the discussion to gun ownership and what it means to own a gun.

Everytown for Gun Safety is an organization that has been advocating for responsible gun ownership since 2013. In 2013, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America combined their resources to form an organization that has some of the greatest minds in America working for sensible solutions.

I completely support what this organization is doing and believe they have several sensible solutions.

Another organization that I believe has similar goals is Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership. This is a grassroots organization of outdoor enthusiasts, gun owners, and veterans that are also focused on your Second Amendment right also being a major responsibility.

Another organization with sensible ideas is The Brady Plan. By even mentioning this organization as a confessed conservative, there is a danger that I will be kicked out of the conservative club (whatever that may be).

If we could stop looking at the issue of guns through political party lenses, we may actually be able to achieve something that no politician gets to take credit for. Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act has been extremely successful with its background checks since 1994. However, as with much legislation passed since the 1990s, there are too many loopholes that need to be closed.

Perhaps as a democracy, we should focus on electing legislators who are more interested in legislating than tweeting in the future and we can actually pass legislation that doesn’t contain loopholes.

Each one of these organizations is going in the correct direction to enact meaningful change that allows people to own guns but makes it very clear there is a major responsibility that goes along with owning guns.

What Does Gun Ownership Legislation Look Like?

Simply put, gun ownership legislation doesn’t look at all like gun control. After all, we wouldn’t want legislators passing abortion control legislation, would we? If we don’t want legislators, for good reason, passing any legislation that controls our freedom to make the right choices for us, then gun control legislation won’t work either.

However, there is gun ownership legislation that makes sense. If we actually had legislators that knew how to write legislation, many of these would have been written, legislated, passed, and put into law long ago. The bad part is that we have 535 legislators that would rather use words to get re-elected than use words to pass meaningful legislation.

1. Background checks on ALL gun sales. This one legislative action won’t handle all cases of gun violence. We still have way too many guns in the hands of criminals that don’t purchase their guns from a licensed gun reseller, if they bother to purchase them at all. As a conservative, I have no problem with a stand-alone piece of legislation that is focused on background checks on all gun sales.
2. The controversial piece I would include in the above legislation is a piece on background checks on all gun resellers. Having a license to resell guns is not enough. There also needs to be a background check on resellers to ensure they can sell guns responsibly.
3. In separate stand-alone legislation, this is where the types of guns allowed for private use should be addressed. Assault weapons, high capacity magazines, bump stocks, and other gun conversions, and silencers should not be for sale to private owners. There is no conceivable use for private ownership, and these weapons should only be for the use of military actions. A lot of conservatives are going to give me grief for this, but beyond you fielding a militia (and I challenge why this needs to be done), there is no reason for any of these guns and accessories in private gun use. If you already own these weapons (here is where the liberals get to scream at me), you can keep your weapon if you submit to a background check and you have a safe place to keep your weapon when it is not being used.
4. Gun violence and many of the mass shooters who perpetrate gun violence are not mentally healthy. Unfortunately, when the last health care legislation was hurriedly written (and not read because of the sheer volume), mental health got left out of the discussion. I believe we are seeing more mass shootings today because we still do not know how many mental health issues got left unaddressed by the shutting down of the health system for much of these for two years. Write a piece of legislation that enacts sensible ways for mental health professionals to be installed in our educational system, and veteran support organizations and make sure health insurance companies have to provide coverage for mental health support.
5. This one is taken from The Brady Plan, #11 — Congress Must Exercise Its Oversight Powers to Hold ATF Accountable. For an agency with 5,082 employees (2020 number), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives does an extremely poor job of policing gun resellers. ATF’s failure to enforce current law and revoke the licenses of repeat offenders significantly impacts responsible gun ownership. If the bureaucrats in this government agency can’t or won’t do their jobs, it is high time to replace them.

Those three simple pieces of legislation plus one legislative oversight plan doesn’t take guns away from people, don’t ban certain types of guns, and won’t “control” gun ownership.

However, these would go much further than all the angst and meaningless words, thoughts, and prayers being offered today to solve a major challenge in America.

Unfortunately, none of these will get done because we Americans keep electing mouthpieces that look good and seemingly sound good instead of electing men and women who are willing to do the hard job of legislating.

The difficult job of legislating means putting the party line behind you and actually working with the other legislative members to write, vote on, and enact sensible gun ownership legislation.