Common Sense

Common Sense Gun Control. That's what we are talking about here. What about background checks for anyone who wants to buy a gun? I know the idea of background checks makes some people nervous. Or worse. It's just the first step in a campaign to take all our guns away. Standing here in the crowd, without a gun of my own, I don't feel that fear. Standing here in the crowd without a gun, I feel a sense of relief. Knowing that the President of the United States would like us all to know more about who can and cannot own guns. That's what background checks will do: give us all a little more knowledge about the people who want to own guns.
Immediately following this suggestion will be the surrender to all the bad guys and idjits who get guns without following the rules. This is, in part, why they are bad guys and idjits. You don't get to be a bad guy or an idjit by following the rules, right? There are licensed and unlicensed gun dealers. Sixty percent of the nation's gun sales are done through licensed gun dealers. That's what statistics tell us. It does not take into account those guns that were lost or stolen or given away. Or borrowed. Why bother going ahead and making more rules for people not to follow? Those guys are idjits.
What if there were some rules that kept just one of those bad guys from getting a gun? If I were a gun owner, I would be proud to be associated with a group of upstanding individuals who would like to separate themselves from the bad guys and the idjits. How does that happen? I'm not guessing that making sure everyone has a chance to own a gun will do that. The right to bear arms is just as secure as the right to free speech. With great power, comes great responsibility. I don't think that counts just for Spider Sense.
As I mentioned earlier, I don't own a gun. This may explain why, when  my son was very young and walking to school, he did a very responsible thing. He saw a gun laying on the ground under some bushes. He remembered what he had been taught at home and at school, and he did not pick it up. He found the nearest grown up and told them what he had seen. The grown ups took care of it, and everyone was safe. He wasn't much older than  the kids who died at Sandy Hook Elementary. He is now just a little older than Zaevion Dobson, who died shielding his friends from gunfire just before Christmas. Zaevion was using his common sense, his great power. Do I know that a background check would have stopped any of those shots from being fired? I do not.
But I don't care for the alternatives, either.