Mandatory Gun Training for 3 months?

Okay gun lovers and NRA supporters, here's a chance to put your money where your mouth is - lets have a 1-3 month mandatory gun training for everyone who purchases a gun.

If the NRA is going to preach "Gun Safety" lets make sure that is sincere.

a drivers license?

does preach gun safety, just like baptist ministers preach abstinence. I qualified on three weapons in the Navy and the training was ongoing. Initial training and requals every quarter. I found it to be essential and your suggestion is a good one.

just saying

I think two weeks' training should be the minimum annual requirement to own any gun. Anyone who fails to complete the two week course has the gun in question confiscated. Any subsequent lapses should be prima facie evidence of intent to commit a crime, and a violation of the constitution. Offenders would then be levied a fine of up to $5,000 and liable to a sentence of up to six months in prison. Can't see as how that would "infringe" on anyone's rights, particularly on the rights of persons who choose not to buy a shootin' arn.

or gun training? How about operating a vehicle that could kill others?

If you can't take and pay for the training then you shouldn't have the permits. Period.

OJT. Nothing anyone tells you can really prepare you.

Training is required in many states, though this does not affect criminals. Your proposal only prevents law-abiding citizens from obtaining guns. The power of the press kills just as many people so maybe the same restrictions on speech should be proposed. Failure to keep up with continuing education results in the government confiscating personal computers. The problem is with criminals, not the Constitution.

The First Amendment is in essence a prohibition against Congress passing a law. The Second Amendment, read in its entirety as any law must be to be interpreted coherently, is not a prohibition on law-making, but on "infringement" of a right, which right is contingent upon being "well-regulated." There is nothing unconstitutional about requiring anyone who wishes to own a gun to be "well-regulated"; my opinion is that two weeks' training annually at the owner's expense is not an "infringement," and any law-abiding citizen would just have one more law to abide by. Breaking the law, by definition, would make that citizen not a law-abiding citizen.

There are scholars on both sides that interpret this differently. My understanding of the founders intentions are clear, just as they are clear with the intention of the first statement in the 1st Amendment. I have no issue with some regulation as there is regulation involving almost every one of our unalienable rights. The point is the problem is not with law-abiding citizens, it is with criminals and criminals exist in countries with the strictest of gun laws. I see gun control as way to control law-abiding citizens. It has nothing to do with safety.

This is a prevalent argument and I have been to a Christmas wherein guns were given and much appreciated.

All arguments about limits and waiting periods and training counter this just so you know what is coming your way.

I do not understand your reasoning. How would that have stopped what happened at VT?

On edit, where I live most of the kids learn about rifles and pistols from their parents. Many kids own their own guns. I live in a very rural area and most of us have the room to target shoot on our own land. It's been that way for over 150 years here. Many people and their kids hunt. Your idea is really irrelevant to most of us here.

I think that many of the people wanting new laws know very little about owning a gun except that we are all "gun nuts." That is as stupid as the wing nuts thinking we want to take their guns away.

So you're saying nothing could have prevented those kids from dying, except another person armed to kill him.

I do think Campus police should have been more aware and done there daily patrols. VaTech cops have guns i think.

The shooter was mentally ill. He could have gotten a gun underground if he wanted to. What he did was premeditated. I don't think that anything could have prevented what he did. I think it is futile to think that you can pass new laws that will make tragedy not happen. It is a good thing to want but you can't do it.


You are what I call process oriented and not results oriented. New laws will make you feel good that you did something about it but they will not bring about the results you want. That's my humble opinion.

I think gun stores have a profit-motive to sell guns to anyone and everyone.

If he had taken a safety class for even one day - maybe the instructor would have seen that this kid wanted to do harm with this gun.

They should have asked why he wanted the gun, make him complete a questionairre. Make it more difficult to own a gun and make you respect the power of a gun.

Besides, where did Cho learn to shoot? He seemed to be able to handle the guns and recoil. It takes practice to shoot a gun correctly.

Do you think killing sprees will occur again and again, maybe next week? So you're saying we can't stop crazy people from obtaining guns and killing everyone?

There are lots of troubled/crazy people out there, but they don't all go and kill people - but some do, how do we stop this?

"Besides, where did Cho learn to shoot? He seemed to be able to handle the guns and recoil. It takes practice to shoot a gun correctly."

Hardly...

Not much recoil with either a 9mm or a 22... The kids he shot were sitting ducks. They probably couldn't comprehend what was happening to them. It is strange that after the first 20 or so dead folks that no one tried to rush the guy but that's a side effect of the insanity of guns, I guess.


"There are lots of troubled/crazy people out there, but they don't all go and kill people - but some do, how do we stop this?"

You can't...not as long as we live in a "society" that loves the god damn things so much they can't abolish them...

They have to be abolished mentally as well as physically. The romancing of those instruments of death and destruction by an overzealous minority is just as dangerous as those deadly little toys themselves.

Until that pathology can be breed out of the American people, as it has been nearly removed from those who live in civilized countries, we're shit out of luck...

But if he had been prohibited from purchasing legally he would have figured out a way to get one. Look at the care with which he put his "media package" together. He wasn't dumb and he obviously put a lot of thought into his crime.

I got my drivers license at 16 without getting permit first.

You only have to do a permit thing if you want to get a restricted license before the age you're allowed to get a regular license.

You don't have to take a driver's training course, either (although that is highly recommended by all...good luck on passing otherwise!). Still, all you have to do is pass the driving and written tests, and ba-da-bing, you get your driver's license and a lovely free photo!

How about locking up the scum who do gun crimes

I have done so about 100 times.

Don't crush each other in the rush to thank me for doing the right thing.

I think that is a good idea. Provided of course, that upon successful completion of the training I am authorized to carry concealed anywhere I want to.

A Federal law that mandates that every gun in the country will be registered. Every gun registered and sold will be test fired and the bullet markings included in a national database along with the owner AND SELLERS names and addresses and fingerprints.

That same law will create a Federal Felony for the owner AND gun seller if a gun is involved in a crime. I think 5 years would be enough for the first offense.

That along with a $15.00 per bullet tax should go a long way toward cutting down on gun violence.

No problem with any 2nd Amendment nonsense with these proposals. No gun ban involved.

That would be great. Only rich people could have guns. Really great idea.

n/t

And a trained instructor could certainly evaluate your mental capability in that time...

:think:
rocknation

Should be a win-win for the right !

I remember a snarky sig photo on DU about joining the military, just like a video game, only it's real ? Haven't seen it in awhile, but this thread made me think of it.

Maybe a test?

To require mandatory training seems to be a way to discourage people from buying guns, rather than cutting down on deaths.

Poor people, working mothers, and others with heavy work schedules would never be able to do the training. If there is a cost to it, then that would exclude poor people, even if they have the time.

Some people have grown up with guns and would know more than the trainers. Why should they be required to attend training?

We have to take a test to get a driver's license. How 'bout a test to get a gun? (Of course, the gun sellers would just let the buyers cheat. But that's another issue.)

In my state, in order to get the license to carry, we have to undergo some sort of training. Other than that, we don't.

The biggest obstacle to gun laws is the gun shows. Unless the proponents of more gun laws can come up with new laws that still allow gun shows to sell their wares, it looks to me like there will be no new meaningful gun legislation.

Meaningful gun legislation, to me, revolves around limiting the KINDS of guns that are sold. Like that glock that was just used. Should that be legal? That glock was one reason he was able to kill so MANY people in such a short time frame, and to reload so quickly.

Most police departments have about 1/2 hour of shooting qualification every 3 months at the most and some times just once a year.

You only need to know four rules:

1. Always assume a gun is loaded.

2. Do not point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.

3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you have a target in your sights and are ready to fire.

4. Be aware of your target and what is behind it.

Takes a couple minutes to learn, and if you follow those to the letter at all times you will never have a gun accident. All gun mishaps, aside from those caused by incredibly rare mechanical failures, are the result of someone ignoring one or more of those rules.

It wouldn't have to be a separate course. A few days in Physical Education makes sense to me. I like the idea of everyone knowing how to handle a firearm properly.