My husband came up with this one. In gun and bullet manufacture, serial-number everything. At the manufacturers' level. EVERYTHING. EVERY part of every gun and rifle of every sort, make, and model. And all accessories and every component and part and particle therein. Let that allow for traceability - back to where that gun or rifle or bullet or component or accessory was sold. Doesn't matter how long the chain of custody was, or whether it was stolen. Trace it back to the gun shop or broker or gun show booth. Do we not also hold bar owners and bartenders and party hosts responsible if somebody drinks too much on their premises or at their gathering and then goes out, drives drunk, and injures or kills somebody? Don't we have that law in place? If it's localized, then to hell with "states' rights." It needs to go NATIONAL. ALL 50 STATES. NO WIGGLE ROOM. Same rules for EVERYBODY across-the-board. NO EXCEPTIONS. On an issue like this, we can't allow for a legislative crazy quilt. Those guns, devices of death, do cross state lines, after all.
The objector or "devil's advocate" will say - Oh, but you'd have to find and replace ALL THE GUNS EVERYWHERE and that just won't happen, totally impractical, can't be done, so why even start down that road and blah-blah-blah. Well, being ruthlessly realistic about it, that's correct. You won't get everybody to get in line and hand in their guns out of the goodness of their hearts, just because it's the right and moral and noble and selfless thing to do. A few might, because their consciences and/or their small children started bothering them about it. But the majority won't so why even go there. In other words, do nothing and just give up, shut up, and go away. And pay no attention to that gunman behind the curtain. We're not set up to be able to achieve the whole pie.
But how 'bout a piece of it? Could be small, but it could also be big. Big enough to make a dent and a difference maybe? Or perhaps you'd rather see nothing done at all? Perhaps an empty pan with scattered crumbs in the bottom is good enough?
So maybe you start with a gun swap, or gun trade-in for some other such thing of value or a no-questions-asked dispensation. Then you're apt to get a LOT of guns manufactured before this new serial-number law was implemented. No, of course you won't get them all, but you'll get a LOT of 'em. You play the odds here and you gain more than you lose. There'd be that many fewer guns out there in circulation that couldn't be seriously tracked.
A deterrent, perhaps. And I think that's a good thing. The sales and brokerage and acquisition of guns 'n' ammo is taken far too lightly. THESE ARE NOT TOYS, OR COOL THINGS TO HAVE AROUND THE HOUSE OR SHOW OFF TO YOUR FRIENDS. THEY ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH. DEVICES DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO CAUSE MURDER AND MAYHEM. You shouldn't be able to just walk up to your local Walmart counter or gun show and casually point at the merchandise you want. It should be a far more serious business and treated as such, with all kinds of heavy penalties hanging over heads on all sides of the transactions, all the time.
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