I feel like there should be a waiting period for your first gun, to reduce the risk of someone in crisis buying one. But once you own a gun, the risk of your second gun seems negligible to me.

But yeah, no background checks on private gun sales is insane. No idea why that's legal anywhere.

IMO there should be a mandatory waiting period of 24-48 hours for any firearm, but you should be able to start the process over the phone/online etc.

Alternatively, require training + passing an exam similar to getting a drivers license for owning anything except a manual long-barrel rifle or shotgun. Semi-auto firearms especially should require licensing/training IMO. Restrictions on magazine size or appearance ("assault rifle" lol) are generally dumb and fail to address real problems. I think it's reasonable to know who probably has a gun (ie. through a license program), but I'm generally against mandatory gun registration (though voluntary registration is fine).

Typically speaking waiting periods are about reducing the risk of someone in a crisis purchasing a firearm and immediately using it for harm, usually either suicide or domestic violence. From a public health perspective there is very little increase in danger for someone buying a second gun, especially of the same type. All of the risk is for their first firearm.

IIRC licensing programs for handguns typically have shown promising results in reducing firearm suicide in particular, but they're also unpopular for predictable political reasons. If you're pro-firearm, there is very little difference between "you have to register your gun" and "you have to register to buy a gun".

> Typically speaking waiting periods are about reducing the risk of someone in a crisis purchasing a firearm and immediately using it for harm, usually either suicide or domestic violence. From a public health perspective there is very little increase in danger for someone buying a second gun, especially of the same type. All of the risk is for their first firearm.

This assumes that people don't get rid of firearms or have changes in mental health. There doesn't seem to be much of a justifiable reason to get a gun on short notice, so why not just apply it universally?

> If you're pro-firearm, there is very little difference between "you have to register your gun" and "you have to register to buy a gun".

I'm pro firearm. I'm also vehemently pro education. If you need a license to prove you can safely operate a motor vehicle, you should need a license to purchase a semi-automatic weapon IMO.

I disagree, there is a functional difference between licensing gun owners vs registering guns. One tracks that an owner has gone through training and is authorized to purchase certain types of weapons. It doesn't concretely determine whether they own, or have ever owned a firearm, just like a driver's license does not determine that I own, or have ever owned a motor vehicle (just that I was able to borrow one for the duration of my practical exam). Further, mandatory registration of firearms would include things such as purchase date, serial number, model, location of purchase, etc., which is actually new information that could be potentially used to track and confiscate firearms under certain circumstances. I'd also like to point out that a background check gives more info about the purchase of firearms than a license would. It tells: the date of purchase, the rough type of firearm (handgun vs anything else, at least in WI), and the location of purchase.

You know, I wanted to prove you wrong about the car licensing vs gun licensing thing by comparing deaths and honestly I proved myself wrong basically. For as little as you deal with a firearm on a day to day basis as opposed to a vehicle, their death tolls per year are very similar. The simple fact that we drive 2 ton + vehicles everyday and not kill eachother constantly is a testament to either A. constant use and exposure aids in safety B. gun safety just isn't a thing C. guns are mostly used for suicides and crime

Generally people who are going to make rash decisions and plan them out acquire firearms in any way their allowed. If it means waiting a day, they will do it. Just because some arbitrary law exists doesn't mean it'll delay or prevent the inevitable. With suicidal and depressive types as well. They aren't like homer simpson purchasing a firearm thinking "aww, I'm suicidal now!" They're pretty much at the breaking point if that happens and literally nothing short of imprisonment can stop them.

That’s actually not true. One of the things we understand about suicide is that it’s often an impulse decision, and access to immediate and reliable means of suicide has a huge impact on overall suicide rates. Even moderate barriers to suicide can actually permanently reduce the rate of suicide in a population. It’s been repeatedly shown that when one method of suicide is made harder, the decrease in that method are not completely offset by other methods.

So when we do seemingly minor things like eliminating CO in domestic gas (“head in oven” was a common suicide method due to CO), increasing the height of railings on a bridge, or even making someone purchasing their first firearm wait a few days, this can often have a significant impact on whether someone actually ends up killing themselves. Suicide isn’t at all inevitable like you say.

What you and professionals consider an "impulsive decision," many depressive types have been considering or have considered but never told anybody for a long time. It only seems impulsive to you because it appears to be random. If anybody has any understanding of human psyche when they're depressed, they would know it's something you plan but play pretend to others so they don't suspect you need to be "locked up for your own good," as what tends to happen to people who try to seek help.

Mental health problems don't persist simply because people can easily buy guns and kill themselves. They continue because people are afraid their going to have their liberties taken away simply because they want help.

While I understand what you're getting it, typically your first gun isn't when the crisis occurs. Especially here unfortunately. Plus a lot of gun culture is tied to hunting culture.

I actually gave a gun to the police once cause I didn't want a rifle anymore (it was just a cheap mosin) and I could tell the cop was holding back a grin of disbelief the entire time. $5 bucks says it's in his gun locker right now at home.