[Daseal]

My response to the gun buyback is... who cares. No one is forcing people to turn in their guns. No one is being pressured to turn in their guns. It's simply a service being offered. The type of crime we saw at Sandyhook can shatter the foundation for some people, and they may want to get rid of a gun in a secure fashion. Why do you care if someone doesn't want their gun anymore and turns it in?

The deflective arguments of drunk driving, knives, etc. really don't focus on the real issue at hand. I feel like the questions posed, especially about drunk driving, were rhetorical, but if they weren't there are some clear differentiators between massacres and DUI deaths.

DUIs do get a lot of attention. They are a high profile issue in our society right now. DUIs are punished quite harshly, unless you’re an athlete, and DUIs should be punished harshly. Driving drunk is dangerous to everyone on the road with you. We see far too many injuries and deaths from DUIs, which is why stricter punishments continue to be implemented. It’s important to make sure that there are clear deterrents in place to curb drunk driving.
There are a few reasons why they typically don’t dominate the front page every day. The American legal system relies on intent. When someone drives drunk, they typically don’t have malicious intent. Nearly all of the cases with DUIs involve negligence. The person driving isn’t leaving the bar to kill themselves and others. They are making a poor decision and trying to get home. That certainly is no excuse for drunk driving, but it is an important differentiator in the legal system.

Look at the difference between manslaughter and homicide. They have the same eventual outcome, but radically different circumstances leading to the same outcome. The intent and act of premeditation makes the crime more severe. Killing someone due to negligence or accidental situations should be punished, but not as severely.

Secondly, DUIs rarely kill more than a handful of people at once. Most DUI accidents have no casualties, or very few. That isn’t often the case with (attempted) massacres. When that happens, they are covered briefly, but they aren’t a lasting news story. I really don’t think anyone is saying that DUIs are not a serious issue in our society, but there’s no reason to merge the two subjects. They are innately different.

Instead of bickering, why don’t we put out some ideas on how to actually come to a compromise. Some of the ideas I like around reasonable gun control:

• Mandatory training. This is not a one-time training. On an interval, you’re required to get recertified to have a license.
• Mandatory Psychological Evaluations. These are also recurring and required for having a gun license.
• Improved Gun Tracking. You must register all guns and periodically audited that you have the gun you say you have. Lack of having possession of a gun results in punishment.
• Gun Responsibility. If you own a gun, and that gun is used in a crime. You are considered, at least partially, to blame for said crime. Any time a gun registered to your name comes up as used in a crime or found in possession of someone else it is a crime.
• Assault Rifle Ban. I don’t consider, because it’s fun, to be an appropriate response to the assault weapons you can buy. Have them available at shooting ranges, but not in homes. No need for them.

Sadly, this topic really demonstrates politics in America right now. Two sides so stuck in their view that they can't really have a healthy discussion, and most importantly, unable to make compromises. We need to find a way to strike compromise to coexist, let's start here. Instead of copy and pasting links to a biased source (one side or the other) what real concessions are you willing to make?