I had a conversation about gun ownership in America last night with a soldier in Seoul, who is heading to Fort Drum in New York and soon to Afghanistan, probably. He really liked my idea that we need a long, drawn-out psych-evaluation for people who would purchase guns. People can’t get behind the wheel of a car or the yolk of an airplane without a long course of practice and certification–either–so likewise, no one should be handed the right to use a deadly weapon without, say–twice as much time in analysis and learning. Finally, automatic weapons should not be purchase-able by non-military. If we want safeguards protecting us from the chance that the federal government could go mad and mobilize in our towns, we can establish a citizens’ armament which couldn’t be accessed without the coming together of a number of appointed council members who would possess keys in each municipality—to such a locker, like the officers who carry the nuclear-launch keys in a submarine. Guns must otherwise be taken from citizens en masse, or in the case where they are the only protection against thieves and rapists, reduced to the size of small handguns. In such cases, I also recommend ballistic weapons be replaced with non-lethal weapons, like tazers, or something else that could be manufactured. There is no reason to have the power to kill…placed in a citizen’s hand; none; zero. © Copyright Carl Atteniese Jr., 2012, All Rights Reserved.
