On the one hand, Americans want their citizens to be armed, to protect themselves collectively from government tyranny and individually against crime.
On the other hand, they want people to be disarmed so as to prevent both ongoing gun crime and occasional killing sprees.
I notice that in all the major killing sprees since Columbine, the perpetrators had one thing in common: a Y-chromosome.
Yep, they were all male. And the vast majority of other shootings are also done by males.
So here's the proposal.
By default,
women automatically have the right to gun ownership (and maybe public carry? item for discussion), although they can lose this right, for example if convicted of a serious crime.
Men must
earn the right to own (& carry) a gun. This can be done by any one of:
* military or police service
* voluntary psychological and background checks
* reaching a set age (25? 30?) without criminal conviction
* other stuff you suggest...
This right could be lost by misbehaviour.
There would be enough armed women and mature men to prevent tyranny, and it would make it much harder for the unstable, depressed loner to obtain weapons, since these seem to frequently be young males. It would give grounds for arresting and disarming those who had not earned the right.
Ibby ... I can hear you already
. Yes, you have a point. I'm not sure what to do about that.
So ... what do y'all think?