But Libertarians oppose mandatory firearms training.
**So do some Democrats and some Republicans. I'm just talking about people in general here.
I know dozens. A friend of mine in high school got drunk and blasted a hole in his foot with a shotgun. Another friend of mine in college got into hand-loading and decided to see how large a charge he could put in a cartridge. A cousin of mine was into plinking and figured that the beach was a safe spot (because there was "obviously" no one in the ocean -- he could see for miles, but had no idea what the scuba "diver below" flag meant).
**Obviously you know a few mentally deficient people. Again I'm talking about my own personal experiences here. *I* don't drink alcohol except once a year I'll have one or two beers at DragonCon at a friend's party I attend. But I won't be carrying my pistol there.
Didn't you need to go through training to get a driver's licence, too? But surely that doesn't magically make every driver responsible, which is why drunk driving is a problem --- and why we still have licensure requirements, and we pull the licences of people who continue to drive drunk even after training.
**Again, I'm discussing my personal experiences. As for the Libertarian stance, it's about personal responsibility and there is DEFINITELY not enough of that. Remember when Paris Hilton went to jail?? She freaked out the first time and they let her out. How is THAT the least bit making someone pay the penalty for their mistakes?
If people are going to screw up then let them pay the penalty. But lets not go overboard with laws here. People generally know what's right and what's wrong.
Your friend who shot himself in the foot paid the penalty of losing half his foot. Your college friend probably died or at the very least lost a hand. And your cousin either shot someone or outright killed them. For that, there are jail sentences. Those were all examples of stupidity so even WITH the laws you have in mind, those incidents probably STILL would have happened.
Stupid is as stupid does, to quote Forrest Gump's mother and no amount of legality is going to change that. Unless of course the government starts mandating minimum IQ's to continue living.
My ideal world would have mandatory gun licensure that includes a mandatory training component and criminalize owning a gun without a valid license. Handling a gun unsafely would be grounds for revocation of license.
Handling unsafely would be grounds for revoccation IF SOMEONE SEES IT. Who actually WATCHES for things like that though?? No one agency can be everywhere.
My compromise world would involve proof of training before you were permitted to own a gun.
**To carry a concealed weapon you MUST show proof of training with your application or you won't even be considered. A state certified gun instructor runs the test and you MUST prove proficiency in order to pass.
The world the USA lives in doesn't even demand training. Funny how the NRA keeps saying that they're in favor of gun training until someone says "okay, we'll make training a requirement" and then they're against it.
And, of course, the Libertarians don't believe in mandatory anything. Because to them, a gun is a magic wishing stone that mere ownership of will make you smarter, faster, better looking, and more responsible.
**Whether people have training or not...whether there are LAWS or not, there is still going to be stupidity because that's just how some human beings are. The laws you propose wouldn't, in all likelihood, kept any of your friends/cousin situations from happening because that was all just stupidity on their part. Unfortunately stupidity is one thing that just can't be legislated.
