A Well-Regulated Militia August 21, 2019August 22, 2019 Sensible solutions seem so simple: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, anyone should be allowed to join the National Guard. Each free state’s National Guard should be well regulated. As a practical matter, even those who don’t join their state’s National Guard should be allowed to own shotguns and sporting rifles. But anyone who wants to own a weapon capable of avoiding airport security detection would have to apply for a permit explaining why — with said permit issued only if there were a good reason. (Can there be a good reason?) And anyone who wants to buy — or sell — cop-killing bullets would have to apply for a permit explaining why — with said permit issued only if there were a good reason. And anyone who wants to own a weapon capable of firing more than six rounds, or that can be reloaded with a magazine, would have to apply for a permit explaining why — with said permit issued only if there were a good reason. Likewise, hand grenades, bazookas, anti-aircraft missiles, tanks, or any other weapons of war. For a year, anyone turning in banned weapons or ammo for which they don’t have a permit would face no penalty and be reimbursed at fair market value. Thereafter, anyone voluntarily turning in weapons or ammo would face no penalty and get a thank-you note . . . . . . but anyone found to have unpermitted weapons or ammo, unless they could persuade a judge of extenuating circumstances (“we didn’t even know there was a floor safe under the rug when we bought the house!”), would be subject to a range of civil and criminal penalties proportionate to the circumstances. Hand guns and concealed carry would require licenses. Listen: if I can’t even install new windows without government inspection . . . well, you get the idea. Gloria Steinem apparently did not pen these words — but she likely agrees with them: How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion — mandatory 48-hr waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, an ultrasound wand up the ass (just because). Let’s close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun. Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun. It makes more sense to do this with young men and guns than with women and health care, right? I mean, no woman getting an abortion has killed a room full of people in seconds, right? Jim Burt: “More than one mass shooting per day since the beginning of 2019 (251 shootings in what is now 220 days of the year). This compares with an average of one every 200 days between 1982 and 2011. The availability of rapid fire, rapidly reloaded firearms is the sine qua non of these mass shootings — weapons that have no legitimate self-defense or sporting purpose. Indeed, Scalia’s opinion in Heller, which underpins the previously unrecognized personal right of self-defense firearm ownership, points to military style weapons as subject to legitimate exclusion. The only obstacle to a dramatic reduction in these incidents is the political refusal to ban and confiscate these weapons.” → See #1-#10, supra.