The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    List of Newtown Rules

    By erica20 on Fri, 12/21/2012 - 2:11pm |

     

    A couple of people asked for clarification on sensible practices so I checked out some of the existing gun laws and made a list. This doesn't get into the whole permit/waiting period issue, which is confusing and different from state to state. Please comment.

    The Newtown Rules: From Gunsanity to Gun Sanity

    The Newtown Rules are a set of 20 sensible gun-related practices, one for each child who perished at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. These practices will be written into Federal Law in the memory of the children who died and as part of a determined effort to protect the children who remain. Given that gun owners maintain that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people,” these rules are less about guns themselves and more about gun owner behavior. Taken as a group, the Newtown Rules will make gun ownership arguably less “fun” but more responsible and safer for all of us.

    1.       No carrying or discharging a gun if your blood alcohol level is over .06. Loaded, unloaded, magazine in your back pocket, it doesn’t matter. On someone else’s land or in your own home, it doesn’t matter. Rule of thumb is that if your beer is open, your gun safe better not be. First offenders surrender guns for one year. Second offenders surrender guns for life.

    2.       Similar rule for other mind-altering substances.

    3.       Trigger lock for every gun. No exceptions. Keys also locked in separate location.

    4.       High-quality gun storage (gun safes.) Those who cannot meet this requirement should consider a different hobby or method of defending the constitution.

    5.       Close supervision of teens with guns. (If your teen or one of their friends takes your gun and kills him/herself or someone else with it, we don’t care how devastated you are after the fact. You lose your gun rights and go to jail.)

    6.       No possession of magazines more than 10 shots. (May need some sort of time-frame/trade-in program.)

    7.       Children under 18 shoot only classic (not semi-auto) weapons.

    8.       In states that permit it at all, only classic (not semi-auto) weapons may be displayed in your home. Ammo locked up separately.

    9.       Ammo locked up. This ends the practice of leaving a gun propped in the corner & box of ammo in the basement.

    10.   Penalties & loss of gun rights for both biological and all step parents of a child who commits a crime using a gun.

    11.   Violent behavior loses gun rights, temporarily or permanently.

    12.   Domestic abuse ditto.

    13.   Driving over 90 mph or recklessly indicates lack of responsibility and loses you your gun rights.

    14.   Other forms of antisocial or reckless behavior lose you your gun rights.

    15.   The way your kids behave could prompt loss of gun rights. Juvenile delinquency or excessive absenteeism prompts a call home to enquire about gun safety.

    16.   If you sell a weapon and it is used in a crime, you will almost certainly lose your gun rights.

    17.   Those whose guns are confiscated, obviously will not be reimbursed.

    18.   Four more as necessary.

    These ideas are simple, reasonable and the least we can do for our kids.

    Comments

    You obviously know your stuff about where the main troubles with guns lie.

    I just thought it might be helpful for you to have a recent example I happened upon from late October (from the supposed land of extra gun control, California):

    Father dies shielding children from gunman who set home ablaze; boy killed; note

    police had been called several times in the past for disturbances.

    Here's the next day follow-up story:

    Details emerge after deadly rampage

    From that, here's the damages more clearly:

    Filimon Lamas and his wife, Gloria Jimenez, tried to protect their four children, authorities said. Lamas was found slumped over three of them; Jimenez, despite being shot in both legs and her pelvis, jumped a fence and ran from the home cradling their 4-year-old son, who had been shot in the head.

    Lamas, 30, and the 4-year-old later died. On Sunday, Jimenez, 28, remained in stable condition at UCLA Medical Center. The couple's 7-year-old daughter, shot in the chest, was "critical but stable," police said.

    Their 6-year-old son, shot in the pelvis, was released from the hospital Sunday and was resting with family members, a relative said.

    Here's the perp:

    Police suspect that Moses indiscriminately opened fire on the family who rented a bungalow on the same property, blaming them for an eviction notice he had received from their landlord.

    The family had called police several times asking them to conduct a welfare check after becoming concerned about Moses' increasing isolation and odd behavior, a relative said. The landlord said he had obtained an eviction order Tuesday that gave the man 15 days to move out.

    Here's the licensing he had:

    Online records from the California Department of Consumer Affairs show that Moses has held a "guard/ patrolperson registration" since 1984. He appears to have kept up with the renewal process, as the registration was valid through August 2013.

    Police should have been able to take his registration and guns away.

    And don't forget restraining orders; around the same time, outside Milwaukee:

    A man who was ordered last week to turn over all his weapons in a domestic dispute opened fire Sunday at his estranged wife's workplace near Milwaukee, killing three women and injuring four others, authorities said. He then apparently shot himself to death, police said.

    That one was obviously an enforcement problem, don't forget laws like you are suggesting require serious enforcement, and that costs more tax money.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 12/22/2012 - 2:46am

    It's true--there will be enforcement costs. But yes, these are situations where, if guns had been removed from these peoples' hands sooner, perhaps the tragedies would not have happened.


    by erica20 on Sat, 12/22/2012 - 9:51am

    Oh you have me weeping by the third paragraph.

    Oh I love Newtown and their citizens.

    Wonderful!

    This is remarkable, truly remarkable!

    I must ponder this for awhile!


    by Richard Day on Sat, 12/22/2012 - 4:05am