We used to have quite a large amount of guns here. In 2006 some guy went on a shotgun rampage and the government changed the gun laws 3 weeks later. Electronic records of firearms, changes to permit requirements, ... and a massive gun turn-in program. For quite a long time, everyone could bring their guns to the police and they would register or purchase them, registered or unregistered. They paid decent prices and you couldn't be charged for illegal firearm possession or unregistered guns when turning them in. This actually resulted in a massive amount of guns being turned in and even more being registered and kept in an electronic database. It's much harder to obtain a gun license now. There's a relatively small annual fee in any case to maintain a license, but the only ways to obtain a license is by being an active member of a shooting club or having a hunting license. You then have to pass a background check, theoretical classes and practical tests. In the case of the shooting club route, you have to be an active member of course and they will check with the club to make sure you actually show up at least the minimum annual requirement. I believe it's every 5 years that you have to take the theoretical and practical tests again to keep your gun license.
Part of that legislation still exists today. This week I inherited these 7 guns (the top one is an air gun, the rest are actual hunting guns) and I only have paperwork for one of them, a Browning B725. I know at least 1 is unregistered.
Neither I or my mom have a firearm license so aside from the air gun, it would be illegal and punishable to keep them. However, due to that 2006 law I have 6 months to sell my guns to the police or a gun store and I can't be charged with any weapons possession charges unless I pass the 6 month limit.
As a private individual and despite having no gun license or firearms seller license, I can conduct one private sale. Which basically only requires copying the buyer's ID and to make sure there's a full paper trail of the transaction. Though as you can imagine there's plenty of unregistered guns being passed around this way, especially in small rural towns like where I live. Where there's also quite a few hunters. I'll be selling the one with the scope to my landlord for example.
I'm taking the others to the gun store to identify and appraise them and they will likely purchase them from me, which automatically registers the unregistered ones. In any case, if the gun store doesn't want all of them, I can sell them to the police.
I don't really have anything against guns but legislation needs to be sensible and a healthy gun culture is a must. I always point to Switzerland as a key example of that. While their guns per capita has decreased drastically in recent years, they used to be in the top 3 worldwide. But their crime rate and mass shooting incidents were extremely minimal, especially given the large amount of guns and the fairly loose laws.
Education and sensible gun culture is key. There's no real argument for NRA talking points like no background checks, legally selling firearms to the mentally ill, ...
At least not in my opinion.
im da only one here that articulated proper common Sense energy policy.. problem is no one here speaks to common sense. its either liberal policies and advocacy or nothing with ya.
