It seems to me that there's a simple Constitutional solution to the gun debate

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, ...

The United States Supreme Court has ruled in the past that the meaning of terms such as "regulated" must be based on their definitions at the time of the Constitution's writing, and not their meanings today. The meaning of "well regulated" in 1788 was "Trained", and not the modern definition...which tends to be more along the lines of "Limited".

So, the Second Amendment of the Constitution plainly states that it is necessary for gun owners to be "well trained and organized". This meaning was reinforced in DC v. Heller. While the court stated that gun ownership is an individual right, it ALSO affirmed the ability of the government to "train and organize" those who own them.

So, quite frankly, as a gun owner, I think it's time for gun licensing. Now, before the gungeoneers freak out, hear my argument out....

My position here is simple. Once every two years, everyone who wants to own a gun will have to submit to some basic training. We're not talking military training, but basic firearms handling certification, a criminal background check, and a FULL MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATION. If you pass them, you will be given a 24 month gun license.

Many gun enthusiasts will stop right there and say, "But I don't want the government to have a list of gun owners! That's the first step to confiscation!" That argument may have been valid 20 years ago, but it's not today. Nowadays it would be trivial to build a one-way authentication system that allowed licenses to be verified without the government being able to identify individuals (for the geeks: The government would merely keep a one way salted hash containing their license number, name, bdate, and SSN...the government can't crack it, but anyone needing to verify a license could merely enter these numbers into the computer, generate a new token, and compare the two to ensure validity. Easy peasy for the geekly inclined.)

Anyway, once we have authenticated licensing in place, we make the possession of a firearm without a license a MAJOR felony. I'm talking, 10 years first-offense. Let's make this a "we're gonna ruin your life" kind of crime.

The idea here is simple. We determine which citizens can actually handle firearms and are sane enough to do so, and we give them a pass. Anyone else gets buried.

Now, once this is done....WE ELIMINATE ALL THE OTHER BS GUN REGULATIONS. No bullet limits. No waiting periods. No gun bans. Quite honestly, if someone is trustworthy enough to own A gun, they're trustworthy enough to own ANY gun. It's absolutely disingenuous to say, "I have no problem with that guy owning a lethal handgun, but I'm afraid of him if he owns a lethal assault weapon." Both weapons are equally lethal, and if you can't trust someone with one, you really shouldn't be trusting them with the other. I don't care if we're talking about a snub nose or an "assault rifle". If you have a valid license, you have demonstrated your trustworthiness to the government. You should be able to walk into any gun store, buy any gun you want, and walk out with it.

We need to make it very, very hard for unstable people or the criminally inclined to get a license. And then we need to make it a very, VERY painful experience for those who have them without a license. But once that's done, the government shouldn't be making life harder for the law-abiding. People who don't commit crimes don't need to be treated like criminals.

The fight over gun rights ultimately boils down to one fundamental problem...there is currently no way for society to identify the "bad" gun owners among the "good" gun owners. If we create and enforce a system that will allow that identification, everything else is simple.