Once again we have mass shootings, and once again, our brave politicians will refuse to discuss controlling guns.

There was a time when the Second Amendment was understood to mean in the context of a militia. It took the same sorts of justices who brought you Citizen’s United to invent new legal fictions.

A simple, common sense solution would be to look at cars.

Cars?

Yes cars.

You do not get to drive a car without a licence and insurance and completing a driving course. This is because it is very easy to kill someone with a car.

You do not get to drive any car you want. This is because the 1000hp monsters out there are not street legal, and putting the average American behind the wheel of one is a recipe for many dead people.

And cars are not even designed to kill people as their main purpose.

I propose the following:

1. All gun owners are nationally registered, with their guns nationally registered as belonging to them. If a crime is committed with a gun, it will be known if it was your gun and the ballistics are on file.

2. All gun owners must purchase insurance, like car insurance to cover any accidental injuries caused by their gun.

3. All gun owners must complete courses on gun safety and operation.

4. To buy a gun, one must have licence and insurance in hand and the purchased gun must have its ballistics in the data base and you are entered as the owner at time of purchase.

Such measures would not solve everything, but, they would cut down on many gun crimes since guns couldn’t be sold as willy nilly, and owners would not want their weapons used for something that ties them directly to a crime.