I actually laughed out loud.. I think because I’ve lived on 3 continents (Australia UK and USA) I see things differently. So now that I’ve left Twitter I’ve subscribed to Thom because I love his way of seeing the world and keeps be thinking and thankful to have someone sharing their knowledge and wisdom here. This is a great country but bringing it back in line with the rest of the western world is a huge job, we lost so much with Reaganomics! But I’ve chosen my forever home in Oregon because I feel Oregonians are the Australian version of Americans. Happy Thanksgiving! We have a bright future as GenZs take the wheel, they can’t do any worse than what’s been done with the manipulation of the political system for 40+ years.
Great idea and a really sensible solution to a life threatening problem here in the US.
I’m from Australia and in 1998 when I moved back for 3 years we were seeing high crime rates at that time, due to criminals being emboldened knowing they wouldn’t be shot during a break in, but by 2000 things started turning around. I moved back here in 2001 to the Colorado mountains and owned a rifle to protect my animals but I never left my home with it. So there is the loophole for meeting the 2nd Amendment rights.
The far-right will argue owning/driving a car is a privilege but a owning a gun is a right. But, if you owned lots of unregistered vehicles on your property you can do that but the moment you take one off your property and into the public realm it must be insured and registered to use/drive it. So if you own a gun or many of them as long as they’re on your property they don’t need registration. If you don’t report it when stolen or taken you as the owner become liable. Much like the liability insurance we hold when someone comes onto our property, if it is a dangerous place and someone is hurt they can sue you and you can easily be bankrupt by a liability claim, but it’s your choice.
On my property I always had an additional umbrella insurance liability policy to protect our assets because we had horses. Our homeowners insurance was higher just by owning the horses. My daughter would take her horse off our property to gymkhanas and if it got away and hurt someone in public I would be held liable for the consequences. Even owning a horse required a County inspector checking the brand and issuing a brand inspection to show the horse’s ownership. So these inspection laws go back to horse thieving days to protect owners and track ownership.
Many people don’t add to their homeowners liability insurance but I’m a responsible person, and if a friend or someone was hurt on my property, or in public by my horses, they could make a liability claim for their medical expenses. Thankfully I didn’t need it. Responsible gun owners like myself wouldn’t have a problem with registration but lunatics would object.
But allowing them unregistered guns on their property could fall into this same place as owning any dangerous item, and no liability insurance can ruin you, but that’s your privilege to choose and the consequences are yours to own too.
Keep giving us great ideas like these to discuss and bring to our Congressperson. Thanks Thom!
Within a private setting, cars don't have to be registered, as you said - you can drive a car on a racetrack and the license and registration are meaningless. But, even on private property they still have to be insured and they still can't be used as a weapon, even in self defense.
But they don’t have to be insured on your property, I know because we had several junk trucks my ex used for parts. As long as you don’t break city or county codes by having a junk yard, you don’t have to insure. But even a race car must be on a trailer to get to a track. If I took my horse to a gymkhana or show I would need to produce brand inspections if asked, they never do, but they can and my animal would be impounded until I produced papers. If you’ve been around a large horse you’d know that it can be used as a weapon to trample and kill, same as a motor vehicle. We need to accept it is a new day and new laws are needed.
Unfortunately most of the people I knew in the mountains were Republicans which I guess makes sense if they’re dumbed down in rural schools to a low level of education where they believe nonsense. In 4th grade my daughter asked to be homeschooled, as a complacent person with a strong willed child with ADHD I was concerned about my abilities but I knew I could do better than what the overcrowded school was doing. She thrived and as socializing was in sports and 4H where she learned great communication skills anxd even how to use weapons such as guns and long bows. I never regretted it and at 15 she scored 10 points higher than the seniors at the local high school in the ACT and we only did school 3 1/2 days per week. So education is tied to these issues so we need to look at this as a larger problem.
Weapons in this nation will always be a problem but today the combination of factors, and divisions in society, makes it a national tragedy.
Reasonable and effective policy solutions to a very serious problem. In order to effect these changes however, we must first do 2 things: limit the role of money (NRA) in the political process and elect more Democrats to Congress and state legislatures.
So sensible! Such simple, exquisite prudence. A shame we are stuck with half a nation of malinformed nitwits... They don't want anything smacking of Common Sense, or facts.
Personally, I deeply wish every last maga-brain would move to russia to be with their dear leader... and leave the rest of us alone so we can enact sensible gun laws, equitable social programs, and reasonable free speech guard rails.
Sadly, with folks like MTG and Gym Jordan et al, we cannot have nice things... like sensible, equitable, and reasonable things. They hate those. And they are teaching me to hate everything they do and say. Which is remarkable, since I went 70 years without understanding Hate as an emotion. But post-tRump, I do now. Sadly.
Thank you Thom for promoting this idea. I've been banging on this drum for many years, especially when talking to gun owners. Although it's only a small number, everyone I've spoken with about this strategy supports the idea.
One big obstacle is the Supreme Court's continuing refusal to consider the first half of the Second Amendment. IANAL, but it seems to me that if the Court recognized the importance of that first part it could break the absolutism of the "shall not be abridged" part that everyone focuses on.
Considering that many citizens and likely some state Attorneys General would use that absolutism to try and overturn any regulatory scheme, a strategy needs to be developed to either change the minds of the Justices (ha!) or pass laws that can avoid the abridgement issue (if that's even possible).
Keep banging on this drum and thank you for all your good work. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I agree that the idea is brilliant, and it's a sane, rational approach. However, the Cult of the Second Amendment views ANY curtailment of its unrestricted and unencumbered access to instruments of death to be the first precipitous step toward a full-fledged Marxist takeover.
The radright no longer even needs a self-interest to block great ideas like this one. The radright babydicks in Congress will block this just because it’s a good idea. They are chaos agents for chaos’ sake.
And state legislators also or primarily will block this, not just radWrongs in Congress. One other thing: A standard phrase of reporter writeups about these massacres is, “Police have not identified a motive yet.” Excuse me, but the motive is the gun itself. Pulling a trigger gives a shooter a high he can get no easier or humane way. The gun IS the motive so, reporters, stop writing that police are searching for a motive...
The, only thing is it all makes sense about the guns and what we can do to stop the carnage so we know that it won’t happen. The one thing we do know is the GOP does not give a damn about common sense. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and thank you Thom for always having common sense and you can take that to the bank. Stay safe out there.
Spot on. I use this very argument, almost to the letter, whenever someone says "Cars kill people, but we don't outlaw cars". My response is, then let's treat guns like cars and I rattle off the above, and their side of the conversation ends.
There is one other important element in car legislation that wasn't mentioned in the article. Yes, we license cars and we license the drivers. And both are periodically examined to ensure they are not a risk to public safety. But we also carefully prescribe HOW cars can be used: they cannot be used as a weapon; the driver must obey all of the myriad of traffic laws, driving on one side of the street, stopping at intersections, obeying signs and signals. We also prescribe WHERE cars can operate, and prohibit their use in many areas, even parking the car is heavily regulated. All of these should also be applied to gun ownership.
Brilliant Thom! Thank you. Happy Thanks Giving.
I actually laughed out loud.. I think because I’ve lived on 3 continents (Australia UK and USA) I see things differently. So now that I’ve left Twitter I’ve subscribed to Thom because I love his way of seeing the world and keeps be thinking and thankful to have someone sharing their knowledge and wisdom here. This is a great country but bringing it back in line with the rest of the western world is a huge job, we lost so much with Reaganomics! But I’ve chosen my forever home in Oregon because I feel Oregonians are the Australian version of Americans. Happy Thanksgiving! We have a bright future as GenZs take the wheel, they can’t do any worse than what’s been done with the manipulation of the political system for 40+ years.
Great idea and a really sensible solution to a life threatening problem here in the US.
I’m from Australia and in 1998 when I moved back for 3 years we were seeing high crime rates at that time, due to criminals being emboldened knowing they wouldn’t be shot during a break in, but by 2000 things started turning around. I moved back here in 2001 to the Colorado mountains and owned a rifle to protect my animals but I never left my home with it. So there is the loophole for meeting the 2nd Amendment rights.
The far-right will argue owning/driving a car is a privilege but a owning a gun is a right. But, if you owned lots of unregistered vehicles on your property you can do that but the moment you take one off your property and into the public realm it must be insured and registered to use/drive it. So if you own a gun or many of them as long as they’re on your property they don’t need registration. If you don’t report it when stolen or taken you as the owner become liable. Much like the liability insurance we hold when someone comes onto our property, if it is a dangerous place and someone is hurt they can sue you and you can easily be bankrupt by a liability claim, but it’s your choice.
On my property I always had an additional umbrella insurance liability policy to protect our assets because we had horses. Our homeowners insurance was higher just by owning the horses. My daughter would take her horse off our property to gymkhanas and if it got away and hurt someone in public I would be held liable for the consequences. Even owning a horse required a County inspector checking the brand and issuing a brand inspection to show the horse’s ownership. So these inspection laws go back to horse thieving days to protect owners and track ownership.
Many people don’t add to their homeowners liability insurance but I’m a responsible person, and if a friend or someone was hurt on my property, or in public by my horses, they could make a liability claim for their medical expenses. Thankfully I didn’t need it. Responsible gun owners like myself wouldn’t have a problem with registration but lunatics would object.
But allowing them unregistered guns on their property could fall into this same place as owning any dangerous item, and no liability insurance can ruin you, but that’s your privilege to choose and the consequences are yours to own too.
Keep giving us great ideas like these to discuss and bring to our Congressperson. Thanks Thom!
Within a private setting, cars don't have to be registered, as you said - you can drive a car on a racetrack and the license and registration are meaningless. But, even on private property they still have to be insured and they still can't be used as a weapon, even in self defense.
Good point!
But they don’t have to be insured on your property, I know because we had several junk trucks my ex used for parts. As long as you don’t break city or county codes by having a junk yard, you don’t have to insure. But even a race car must be on a trailer to get to a track. If I took my horse to a gymkhana or show I would need to produce brand inspections if asked, they never do, but they can and my animal would be impounded until I produced papers. If you’ve been around a large horse you’d know that it can be used as a weapon to trample and kill, same as a motor vehicle. We need to accept it is a new day and new laws are needed.
Unfortunately most of the people I knew in the mountains were Republicans which I guess makes sense if they’re dumbed down in rural schools to a low level of education where they believe nonsense. In 4th grade my daughter asked to be homeschooled, as a complacent person with a strong willed child with ADHD I was concerned about my abilities but I knew I could do better than what the overcrowded school was doing. She thrived and as socializing was in sports and 4H where she learned great communication skills anxd even how to use weapons such as guns and long bows. I never regretted it and at 15 she scored 10 points higher than the seniors at the local high school in the ACT and we only did school 3 1/2 days per week. So education is tied to these issues so we need to look at this as a larger problem.
Weapons in this nation will always be a problem but today the combination of factors, and divisions in society, makes it a national tragedy.
Reasonable and effective policy solutions to a very serious problem. In order to effect these changes however, we must first do 2 things: limit the role of money (NRA) in the political process and elect more Democrats to Congress and state legislatures.
So sensible! Such simple, exquisite prudence. A shame we are stuck with half a nation of malinformed nitwits... They don't want anything smacking of Common Sense, or facts.
Personally, I deeply wish every last maga-brain would move to russia to be with their dear leader... and leave the rest of us alone so we can enact sensible gun laws, equitable social programs, and reasonable free speech guard rails.
Sadly, with folks like MTG and Gym Jordan et al, we cannot have nice things... like sensible, equitable, and reasonable things. They hate those. And they are teaching me to hate everything they do and say. Which is remarkable, since I went 70 years without understanding Hate as an emotion. But post-tRump, I do now. Sadly.
Thank you Thom for promoting this idea. I've been banging on this drum for many years, especially when talking to gun owners. Although it's only a small number, everyone I've spoken with about this strategy supports the idea.
One big obstacle is the Supreme Court's continuing refusal to consider the first half of the Second Amendment. IANAL, but it seems to me that if the Court recognized the importance of that first part it could break the absolutism of the "shall not be abridged" part that everyone focuses on.
Considering that many citizens and likely some state Attorneys General would use that absolutism to try and overturn any regulatory scheme, a strategy needs to be developed to either change the minds of the Justices (ha!) or pass laws that can avoid the abridgement issue (if that's even possible).
Keep banging on this drum and thank you for all your good work. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I agree that the idea is brilliant, and it's a sane, rational approach. However, the Cult of the Second Amendment views ANY curtailment of its unrestricted and unencumbered access to instruments of death to be the first precipitous step toward a full-fledged Marxist takeover.
The radright no longer even needs a self-interest to block great ideas like this one. The radright babydicks in Congress will block this just because it’s a good idea. They are chaos agents for chaos’ sake.
Thank you for your creative thinking on this difficult subject .
Finally some rare sense making thoughts about this out of control situation.
Happy Thanksgiving.
"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead."
- Arundhati Roy, writer and activist (b. 24 Nov 1961)
And state legislators also or primarily will block this, not just radWrongs in Congress. One other thing: A standard phrase of reporter writeups about these massacres is, “Police have not identified a motive yet.” Excuse me, but the motive is the gun itself. Pulling a trigger gives a shooter a high he can get no easier or humane way. The gun IS the motive so, reporters, stop writing that police are searching for a motive...
The, only thing is it all makes sense about the guns and what we can do to stop the carnage so we know that it won’t happen. The one thing we do know is the GOP does not give a damn about common sense. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and thank you Thom for always having common sense and you can take that to the bank. Stay safe out there.
Spot on. I use this very argument, almost to the letter, whenever someone says "Cars kill people, but we don't outlaw cars". My response is, then let's treat guns like cars and I rattle off the above, and their side of the conversation ends.
There is one other important element in car legislation that wasn't mentioned in the article. Yes, we license cars and we license the drivers. And both are periodically examined to ensure they are not a risk to public safety. But we also carefully prescribe HOW cars can be used: they cannot be used as a weapon; the driver must obey all of the myriad of traffic laws, driving on one side of the street, stopping at intersections, obeying signs and signals. We also prescribe WHERE cars can operate, and prohibit their use in many areas, even parking the car is heavily regulated. All of these should also be applied to gun ownership.
Great idea!