Can specific laws be tailored which would keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people?

Answer 1

There is no law which will keep a person from getting a gun if they really, really desire too. There are simply too many guns around to stop them. I can pick up a local newspaper, and if I have the money buy a gun in less than a day. But that doesn't mean it should be easy for people to get guns. Our legislation should make it as difficult as possible, and all gun owners should be liscenced and evaluated by local or state police to make sure they are not illegally selling guns to criminals.

Answer 2

Firearms laws and regulations only work with law abiding people. If somone wants a gun they can find one no problem at all. One of the main problems creating any law is to get everyone on the same page. Canada has established a national Policy and laws concerning the ownership and use of firearms. Which also includes a national safety training program. While its not prefect it does work in some aspects.

However the firearms laws and regulations vary from state to state in many ways. And there maybe the problem when it comes to specific laws. Prehapes its time for all the states of the union to sit down and draft a national policy, laws and regulations. Much like canada's in order to provide safety training, licencing, safe storage, and use.

Answer 3

I actually like an idea I read about in response to a similar question I had. Getting a note from a Doctor to basically certify you arent a mental health issue that you bring to the gun store. It would save alot of stress for the system because then the Judge etc doesnt have to worry about his rights to medical information, violating HIPPA its not perfect but its a step in the right direction. There are holes in it but I think the simpler the rules and laws the more likely they can actually be implemented. I think they make many laws according to the fad of the day and the laws all get lost in the shuffle.

Answer 4

I have already posted this exact response, but am pasting it into all gun-control questions because as opposed to ranting and raving, for one side or the other, you will find that my data is at least highly accurate if you decide to research it (do not complain if you get data from unreliable sources; mine are from a collaboration of OFFICIAL crime data sets, such as the Unified Crime Report [UCR]).

Guns are not the issue but, instead, the problem lies with the ability for people to use them improperly to assert control over other people. The only thing which could be accomplished by outlawing guns altogether would be to take them away from law abiding people. The criminals would still have them... think about it: if they're already engaged in criminal behavior which causes them to believe that they need guns, then they will not hesitate to break the law in order to acquire firearms; they are already breaking the law, anyway. Now, this idea may seem a little outlandish to many people, but.... If you consider that true career criminals constitute only 6% of the total population then, if everyone was issued a handgun and trained to use it properly, you might see that 6% begin to disappear for fear of being confronted by the other 94% of the armed, law abiding population. In effect, proper distribution of firearms could actually cause a decrease in crime trends.

Answer 5

No. The reason being that you cannot know who is the wrong person. There can be restrictions placed, but those would only make it harder for the wrong people to get their hands on guns, it would not keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

Take it like this. Some guy who has no criminal record could go, buy a gun, and then two months later he could kill his entire family with it. How would you know his intent?

Another scenario, this guy just got out of jail. He can't buy a gun himself, so he borrows/ steals one from someone else.

Gun laws are like making laws against drinking, no matter what you do, you can't halt it. The laws only make it harder for those that want to drink or own guns, or whatever.

Answer 6

Yes,
Yesterday in the Philly Inquier 2 reporters tested the PA and NJ gun laws- a man went into a PA pawn shop and purchased a hand gun in 40 mins. A woman went to a NJ pawn shop and it took 3 months, she had to get a background check, she had to give 3 references, and a state trooper came to her house to notify her husband that she was buying a gun.
It looks like NJ has the right idea.

Answer 7

Sometimes, such as the VT case, it is hard to define who the wrong people are. Like the dealer said "Seemed like a normal clean cut college kid...." There are gun laws that are supposed to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands.

Answer 8

There would have to be a very sophisticated and intrusive system of documenting people's qualifications for buying a gun (intrusive because it would have to contain any psychiatric evaluation the person has undergone). And it would have to entail a system for tracking possession of all guns. Like registration every year so that someone who loses their qualification would have their guns confiscated. And it would require a huge organization to keep track and enforce it, track down people, confiscate weapon, etc. Plus everytime you had to conficate guns from a person who had just lost their right to have them you'd have a potential shoot out situation.

I don't see it happening.

Answer 9

There are strict gun control laws in several jurisdictions but enforcement is difficult because individuals can easily purchase guns in other jurisdictions. If the attempt were made to make such strict gun control laws nationwide, the NRA and others would campaign heavily against it.

Answer 10

If we deal with the root of the problem, we don't need to worry about guns being in the wrong hands. I think we need to changeour attitudes towards women, so that it isn't OK for someone to stalk women, yet have nothing show up on your criminal background...or if you shoot your girlfriend, it isn't looked at as 'business as usual'...allowing a double murder to turm itno a killing spree. Those cops should have declared a state wide hunt for him when he shot that girl and the guy she was with in her room, not dismissed it as a 'domestic situation'. So yes, we need to change the stalking laws.