Cars Kill People Too – Another Gun Argument

This entry is part 8 of 13 in the series Guns

One of the most common arguments I seen thrown around to do nothing about gun violence is “Well cars kill people too, let’s ban cars.”

Well, first, please stop with “banning” bullshit, because it’s just that, bullshit. No one is talking about banning all guns. A majority of Americans agree we should ban guns like the AR15, but I’ll save that for an article all its own.

I suppose one can dismiss this argument out-of-hand for its stupidity, but I want to play along with them. I’m not sure they understand what they’re doing when they compare guns with cars. I’d actually very much like to treat guns and gun-safety much as we do with cars.

First, you have to get a license to drive a car. To get said license, you have to take a driving course, then appear before an examiner for a written and practical test. That examiner is also evaluating whether you are mentally and physically capable of driving a car. If they have any doubts they can require that you bring a letter of release from a Physician. Oh, and every few years, you have to renew that license. Let’s do the same with guns.

We have an entire federal agency, The National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA), which studies highway safety issues from cars to where we drive them (highways and roads), and creates regulations to make them safer. Congress has prohibited the CDC from even studying gun violence, so let’s remove that restriction, and treat guns just like we do cars. Let’s create a Gun-Safety Administration under say, Health and Human Services, charged with studying gun violence and injury, and establishing regulations to make guns, gun use, and gun ownership safer.

When buying a car (and all the associated safety equipment and design measures it must have), it comes with a title that has to be transferred with each sale, and then you have to register it. I’m with you…let’s treat guns just like cars. And let’s renew that registration annually.

In some states, you must have a safety inspection done on the car annually…so I’m with you there too, let’s have annual gun safety checks.

When you go to register that car, one of the things you have to do is provide proof of insurance. You have to carry liability insurance so that if you use your car to kill or maim someone, there’s a mechanism to make the party or their beneficiaries whole again. I’m with you…let’s treat guns just like cars. Own a gun…you have to carry liability insurance.

Now, you’re ready to hit the road. There’s a whole code of motor vehicle laws that designate how fast you can go; where you can drive your car; when you have to stop and yield to others. So I’m with you there too…more gun laws about how and where they can be used.

Now, amazingly, when I bring this up, they suddenly try to back pedal (big surprise I know) by claiming there’s a constitutional right to own guns, but not to own a car. I’d say bullshit to that too. First, we’ll get around to even more discussions on what the Constitution says about gun ownership, but the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia…the most conservative Justice ever…wrote this opinion) says the Constitution does not prohibit reasonable regulation, and it does not grant the right to necessarily own any type of gun. We have an inherent and well established right to freedom of movement, and a car merely facilitates that movement. However, no one seems to dispute the need for regulations over motor vehicles and their operation.

So, for all you gun nuts out there dry-humping your AR15s, I’d like to thank you for joining the 66% of Americans who believe we need more and better regulation of guns. Glad you boys are on-board.

 Loading ...