As I reviewed the news related to Ft. Lauderdale, I have one conclusion:
Take Guns Out of the Hands of the Mentally Ill
How can we do this?
- Start now, and identify a list of characteristics that would label an individual as "Unfit to Own a Gun." Perhaps the characteristics could be modeled after the way they determine a person unfit to drive.
- Determine a process whereby a person can be designated as "Unfit to Own a gGun." It seems to me that in many of the instances of carnage America has experienced, family members clearly understood their own family member as "Unfit to Own a Gun." It could be that there is a public process of declaring a person "Unfit to Own a Gun."
- Determine a process to anonymously report a person "Unfit to Own a Gun" who appears to have a gun, and a resulting process that enables the police to search that person's home and vehicle for the gun(s).
- Create a "Registry for Gun Control" like the Registry of Motor Vehicles and create a number of protocols, rules, and steps for safe gun control. This could add jobs and be an income generator for states too.
This is a first step that I believe most citizens in the United States would support. Maybe our legislative representatives can forward this now.