The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
As the great political minds in Congress fight the same old battles over proposals to prevent mass killings with semiautomatic rifles, it seems like a good time to toss out a new idea or two.
The state has enacted some of the rules being discussed in the other Washington, such as red flag laws, raising the minimum age for possession of certain military-style weapons and banning large-capacity magazines.
While some gun safety advocates consider them no-brainers, debate over gun control and gun safety laws in the Legislature over the last decade have shown they aren’t as easy to pass as some people think, even in a deep blue state. Some had to be enacted by ballot initiative, which is not an option nationally.
Maybe the answer to reining in semiautomatic military-style weapons lies in the Second Amendment itself, and its opening phrase “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state …” Rather than try to take those guns away, or keep people from buying them – and thus keep the gun manufacturers and its handmaiden, the NRA, quiet – federal law could just require anyone who wants an AR-15 or one of its many knock-offs to be a certified member of a well-regulated militia.
After all, well-regulated militias do not barricade themselves in elementary school classrooms or gun down people in supermarkets. They do not shoot up church prayer services or places of work, or send a hail of bullets into a crowd attending a Las Vegas concert. The many mass killings can definitely make a person feel less secure.
This requirement wouldn’t necessarily mean joining the National Guard, which has certain physical standards and service commitments many gun owners couldn’t meet. But it could mean the establishment of licensed organizations with certain training standards and requirements that members show proficiency in the safe use and storage of such a weapon.
When a person can demonstrate that, they would be entered in a database and issued a chip-embedded membership card they would have to show when buying a semiautomatic military-style rifle or its ammunition.
It would be open only to persons with clean criminal records and no mental health concerns that don’t currently bar them from owning a firearm. The militias could also have a simplified version of the “personal reliability program” the military uses to determine whether a person should lose access to nuclear weapons systems if they were under certain emotional or family stress.
The advantage of such a card would mean a gun dealer wouldn’t have to do a background check for purchasers. Militias could also provide an “armory” for the voluntary storage of a member’s rifle and ammunition, which could hold the weapons and provide access when a member showed up with the card.
It would also flag purchases of large amounts of ammunition that would result in a “what the heck?” call to the member from the head of the militia.
Membership might have to be renewed every few years, like a driver’s license, with the owner proving they haven’t forgotten their training. It would be automatically canceled with a felony conviction and put on hold in the event of a protection order issued by a judge, which would show up when a gun dealer ran a check on the card.
As for the millions of semiautomatic military-style rifles already in the hands of Americans, the government might establish a buy-back program linked to efforts to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Owners who turned in their AR-15-style weapons and high-capacity magazines could get a check from the pot of money approved for military aid to Ukraine, a letter of thanks from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a lapel pin with the American and Ukrainian flags.
These suggestions aren’t perfect, and some readers are probably reaching for pen and paper or their keyboard to tell me how stupid they are. But after trying and failing at the same-old, same-old, isn’t it time Congress started kicking around something new?
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