No one wants any more mass shootings in the U.S., but a lot of people still want to hang on to their firearms. Nevertheless, we know from the U.K. that strict gun control can be effective in reducing this particular mass shooting problem, but the different cultures of the U.K. and the U.S. need to be recognized and accounted for.
I think we could set up federal personal arsenal facilities. These would primarily consist of a set of gun lockers and a shooting range. It’s kinda like a post office for guns. In order to possess a firearm, a person has to rent an arsenal box and the firearm has to be stored there. The gun owner can access their box at any time, and can reserve times on the range for the use thereof. However, the gun owner can only remove a gun from the facility under state permit. In the case of buying and selling guns, the federal arsenal facility can transfer guns from one box to another in any other arsenal in the U.S.. Available permits will be the same as current gun use permits: hunting or concealed carry for personal protection. Obviously, there should be limits on size and magazine capacity for weapons that would be eligible for a concealed carry permit. There is an opportunity for these federal arsenals to work with local DNR’s or other government wildlife management to streamline applications and verification of permits to make setting up a hunting outing a one stop trip. In general, it must be the State that issues permissive permits, while the federal obligation is just to secure the arsenal facility and verify the permits before allowing weapons out.
I’m thinking that these facilities could have some similarities with airports. You have a secured area, and within that you have space for related businesses. So these facilities could include gun repairers/machinists, gun stores, and some free work benches for inspection and maintenance, all within the secured area.
I think that this solution can preserve the traditions that are valued by current legal gun owners in the U.S.. There are some possible big drawbacks/disruptions to current gun businesses that need to be addressed. Private range owners could be especially unjustly affected if nothing else is done. These can be preserved by permitting these facilities to have satellite federal arsenal boxes and to offer some of the same services as the federal arsenals.
