From earlier today:

Call for gun violence op-eds: I want new solutions from troops, vets, IC, LEOs. NOT L vs R politics.
Send to: submissions@defenseone.com

— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) July 18, 2017

Here is my response:

I am a veteran in a family full of veterans and active duty people. I am 47, which means I’m old enough to have grown up when guns were not toys, but were treated with respect. (My grandfather would have slapped a lot of gun owners these days upside their heads and taken their guns the way they act now.) Asking for input from Veterans is falling into the appeal-to-authority fallacy, and really, we’re not necessarily that much of an expert on the issue. In fact, there would be no way this country could have the kinds of restrictions on firearms that we had in the military.

Having said that, there are two things to discuss with this issue. The first one is easy, which would be my suggestions for gun laws. Most are fairly straightforward, and attempts have been made to implement some of them:

1. All guns should be registered with their owner. Any sales must include a notification of transfer of ownership.
2. Medical professionals, judges, or the police should be able to recommend suspension of gun ownership. Citizens should be able to make reasonable recommendations to police in this matter, where the police will investigate.
3. Every new gun owner needs to be taught the NRA’s code of conduct regarding firearms and be expected to follow it. Failure to follow it in handling guns should be grounds for losing access until retrained.
4. Large weapons should be stored at a shooting range.

The second thing to discuss, though, is the current myth about guns in this country. And until we overcome these, there is nothing that can be done.
1. “Your guns can be used to overthrow the government.” All it would take is a missile to your property to end that real quick.
2. “Guns protect you in assault.” Most of the time they don’t, and a lot of times get turned on the owner.
3. “The NRA cares about your gun rights.” No, the national organization doesn’t. They care about sales. They have been silent numerous times where police have killed someone who had a gun near them, but did not pull it out. And not all of the victims were black.
4. “Carrying a gun deters violence.” If that were true, Europe and Canada would be rampant with killings and we would be free of them. In fact, it’s the other way around by a wide margin. And the margin is entirely due to guns.

What all of these really boil down to is that most people do not understand that guns are only good at one thing: Killing. They do not deter. There will always be a bigger gun. And if people do not respect them enough, and respect those around them enough, we will not change the number of needless deaths in this country.