As I think about gun-owners today, I think they can be placed in a few different groups. There are similarities with discussions we have about medical errors and negligence--because there are sometimes tragic injuries and deaths involved. So bear with me here as I talk about the similarities. This isn't going to be artful.

1. There are legal, responsible gun owners who are concerned about their Second Amendment rights. Fair enough. Their right to bear arms is guaranteed under the Constitution--but as with doctors, if one of them makes an error, the results can be deadly.

2. There are gun owners whose enthusiasm for owning guns outstrips their financial or practical ability to safely use and store them. They, and the people around them, are vulnerable to deadly errors and accidents. The problem with these gun owners is that they are considered "responsible gun owners" until it becomes tragically apparent that they were out of their depth in terms of keeping their guns out of the hands of others, or in the case of suicides, their own hands. I'd put Nancy Lanza in this group. Similarly, there are well-meaning medical professionals who are prone to error or lapses in judgment.

3. There are really sketchy gun owners--people who may never have been convicted of a crime that would prompt confiscation, but boy, we sure wish they didn't own those guns. Sadly, we all know a physician or nurse who strikes us the same way. 

4. There are people who get guns illegally, or do not surrender their guns when they are supposed to. (Think of unlicensed plastic surgeons, or people who steal pain drugs from patients.)

The discussion about medical error was similar, because "good" doctors didn't want their freedom to practice medicine infringed by a lot of unnecessary rules. But ultimately, the sheer number of injuries and deaths prompted agreements on changes in the way we do medicine. So now we have:

--wrong-site surgery protocols. Some hospitals put an "x" on the limb that the surgeon is supposed to amputate. Others put an "x" on the limb that the surgeon ISN'T supposed to amputate. Many surgeons practice at different hospitals. You see where I'm going with this. Finally, we are starting to have legally-mandated consistent protocols.

--computer order entry. Physicians were scandalized at the idea that they had to enter prescriptions into a computer rather than scrawling them on prescription pads. But the use of programs that automatically check for decimal-point errors alone has prevented overdose fatalities.

--required easy-to-recognize packaging. Drugs with similar names must have different packaging, to prevent errors. A few years ago, Dennis Quaid's twin babies almost died from an overdose of blood-thinning medication. Now the different dosages are packaged so that they cannot be mistaken for one another.

--required handwashing and sanitation practices. They work. And when they are not used, the result is deadly infection. One of our own recently lost his mother to one such infection.

These requirements, many of which were vigorously opposed by medical professionals as unnecessary restrictions on their freedom to practice, have made good doctors safer and saved the lives of patients who were under the care of those who did not operate safely. Good doctors had to go along with them, but the safety benefits were so significant that it all worked out.

I think this is the kind of discussion we need to be having. Good gun owners are going to have to go along with some requirements in order to discourage or weed out the bad ones, and to make sure the questionable ones do what they're supposed to do.

The alternative is an unacceptable level of danger. Sure, you can sue a doctor if he makes a stupid error that kills your kid, just like you can sue a gun owner who leaves a gun on the kitchen table at a birthday party or allows someone crazy access to weapons. But at that point, your kid is already dead. So for everyone's future safety, you have to talk about safer procedures.

Next up--we've talked a lot about Second Amendment rights. But what about illegal guns? Let's focus on that for a bit.