I'll admit, as a Canadian, I don't fully understand the issue in the US, where I now live. Of course there are fairly strict limits on guns in Canada. I have no issue with people having a right to protect their family and home. The issue lies in the fact that everyone has that right, unless they are red flagged. This past week a young worker at Wal-mart went berserk and shot his co-workers. Several were killed. He got the gun legally. The last I heard he had no priors. The question becomes how to weed out these people. People that have a mental issue, someone with a grudge. It's not fair to take the rights away from law abiding people. It is a tangle that I honestly don't know how it can be fixed. Without God, people have no hope and life means nothing to them. I don't really know if there is possible change outside of that.
I don't think there is any way to eliminate 100%, but there is a relatively simple way to eliminate 80%. In the case of the Walmart shooting it wouldn't have stopped that. But the vast majority of shootings in this country are from gang bangers. It would be a straightforward to eliminate the majority of shootings by anyone with a felony and anyone who can't pass the licensing requirements and to immediately realize you have a problem with someone who has a gun the minute they have to seek help from a mental health professional or have some red flag issue with the police, job or family.
If you are required to have liability insurance with a gun and to show proof of insurance when you buy ammo or guns or other items related to guns the insurance company would be notified immediately in the event you are buying something and with their computer system they could flag an account if there is a red flag. In addition you can get a discount on your insurance if you give them access to your mental health records.
Once you do this you have company with massive resources and a financial interest in preventing a liability with a shooting.
But even more if a person with a felony has a gun they now have two violations: gun without a license and a gun without insurance. Also it becomes much more difficult for them to buy ammunition since they don't have proof of insurance. Also the people the gangs use to buy guns for them couldn't do it again. No insurance company is going to be on the hook when one of these guys wants to buy 25 guns.
Then when there is a shooting it will be much easier to trace the gun. Right now we don't have computerized registry of guns because it is thought to violate the constitution. However, all the various insurance companies could. So you have a shooting, you do the study on the bullet and casing, then you subpoena all the insurance companies to check their records and find the gun. You would know within hours.
Also when they do trace the gun back to one of these mules they will say the gun was stolen. Well if you have insurance you would have to advise the insurance company immediately. Some guy buys 25 guns and then a week later tells the insurance company that all 25 got stolen? That is that, no insurance company will work with this guy again and they will identify the gun shop as being a store used in supplying guns for gangs.
1
