The Ultimate Gun Control Solution: Answers, not Arguments

By Charles ODonnell

Too many kids with guns are driving up violent crime rates and needless firearm deaths. What can we do about it?
This book contains over two dozen solutions that will reduce firearm deaths without invoking the wrath of the U.S. Supreme Court, or violating anyone’s second amendment gun rights. Many only require a signature.
There are an estimated 50 million Gun owners in the United States. Taking everyone’s guns away is neither practical, nor legal. Gun buy-backs do not reduce crime. Defunding police does not work. Guin laws are ignored by criminals.
This book is neither pro-gun, nor anti-gun. It explores the experiences, the statistics, and the impact of various gun control strategies that have been used globally as well as within individual States. Much of what we are doing has already been proven to be ineffective in other countries. Some strategies do work & where statistics support these approaches, this book expands on them in detail.
The author has also injected a few personal suggestions and insights into the problems of trying to control guns by mandates, rather than by using voluntary measures, which produce a better result with less government intrusion.
In the end, the author proposes five major initiatives that can substantially reduce overall crime and death or injury from firearms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798369413494

Charles ODonnell

Charles O’Donnell is a retired executive, a certified project manager, a Toastmaster DTM, and former CEO. He is revered for being articulate, innovative, detail-oriented, and someone who “can get things done”. He has worked for two airlines, a city transit agency, a major Seaport, a multi-state retailer, a billion-dollar grocery wholesaler, and the State of Washington. He developed one of the first college-accredited Grocery Management courses in 1980 and was CEO for a regional retailer from 1985 to 1995. He then managed one of the largest distribution centers in the U.S. (1.5 million sq. ft) and went on to manage Washington State’s liquor distribution center in 2011 before retiring. He has authored several books on a wide variety of subjects. He loves to travel and has visited over 50 countries. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, boating, landscaping, restoring old cars, and genealogy. He has been married for over 55 years and has three grown children. He and his wife now live near Seattle

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Copyright © 2024 by Charles ODonnell.

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Rev. date: 01/10/2024

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Contents

About this book

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Why current gun controls don’t work

Chapter 2 Your Rights: The Second Amendment

Chapter 3 Your Obligations: Accessibility

Chapter 4 Your Responsibilities: Kids & Guns

Chapter 5 Your Risks: Personal Liability

Chapter 6 The Facts: Crime Statistics

Chapter 7 Crime & Punishment: The Consequences

Chapter 8 Incarceration: Losing your Freedom

Chapter 9 Firearms & Mental Health

Chapter 10 Guns & Ammunition

Chapter 11 Firearm Safety Certification requirements

Chapter 12 Gun Registration – How would it work?

Chapter 13 Voluntary Government Service

Chapter 14 The Ultimate Solution

Chapter 15 Things that we know don’t work

Chapter 16 Our Justice System

References

Dedicated to my brother

Robert O’Donnell

The best Criminal Justice advisor ever.

About this book

Too many kids with guns are driving up violent crime rates and causing needless firearm deaths. What can we do about it?

This book contains over two dozen solutions that will reduce firearm deaths without invoking the wrath of the U.S. Supreme Court, or violating anyone’s second amendment gun rights. Many only require a signature.

There are an estimated 50 million gun owners in the United States. Taking everyone’s guns away is neither practical, nor legal. Gun buy-backs do not reduce crime. Defunding police does not work. Gun laws are ignored by criminals.

This book is neither pro-gun, nor anti-gun. It explores the experiences, the statistics, and the impact of various gun control strategies that have been used globally as well as within individual States. Much of what we are doing has already been proven to be ineffective in other countries. Some strategies do work & where statistics support these approaches, this book expands on them in detail.

The author has also injected a few personal suggestions and insights into the problems of trying to control guns by mandates, rather than by using voluntary measures, which produce a better result with less government intrusion.

In the end, the author proposes five major initiatives that can substantially reduce overall crime and death or injury from firearms.

* * * *

Preface

There are an estimated 81 million legal firearms in the United States. There are well over one hundred laws, regulations, and rules governing the purchase, use and sale of these firearms. Despite all of these constraints, firearm sales are at an all-time high, & crimes where firearms were involved are rising at an alarming rate. Why is this?

There are several key reasons, which this book explores in detail, but the underlying reason most gun laws are ineffective is that criminals don’t care. You can’t legislate guns out of the hands of criminals. They do not obey the law, that is why they are called criminals. These constraints are all directed at law-abiding citizens.

After watching an interview on television where the commentator asked some pretty simple questions, the guest legislative representative was unable to offer any solutions. Clearly, we are under the belief that our political leaders (most of whom are lawyers), have a handle on this issue, but it is obvious that they do not.

I am not a gun owner, but I decided to research what other countries are doing, or have done, what works, and what doesn’t. The results were surprising. Most of what we are doing, or are thinking of doing, has already been proven to be ineffective, and will not reduce gun crime, or firearm deaths, or even reduce crime overall.

The majority of us just want common-sense gun regulations in order to minimize unnecessary death, destruction, or disruption to our lives. I thought I would just follow the facts to see what I could learn about both sides of this very politicized issue.

I am not a gun owner, yet I understand why the citizens of this country want to own guns, and why I think they should be allowed to own guns (with certain conditions) per the Constitution.

I understand why writers of the constitution were so diligent in drafting the second amendment, that they made it the second major freedom, and then documented why it was so important,

I believe strongly in the second amendment for multiple reasons, but most importantly, I wanted to raise the stakes in this gun control debate by being someone who understands the concerns of the gun control advocates, and by virtue of not being a gun owner, have no vested interest in many of the counter-arguments that gun owners raise. Most urban city dwellers don’t need an assault weapon, but they do have the right to defend themselves, if they can accept the obligations, responsibilities and consequences of that ownership.

As I pondered our current societal concerns, I wondered why do we keep doing the same things over & over expecting a different result. Here are some of my thoughts;

• Instead of proposing Mandatory regulations that discourage compliance, why can’t we implement Voluntary measures with perks that encourage compliance?

• Instead of looking for ways to make imprisonment shorter, why are we not making the penalties for criminal offenses longer?

• Instead of releasing perpetual criminals from overcrowded prisons, so they can re-offend, why don’t we build more prisons to hold more perpetual offenders?

• Instead of trying to keep guns away from teenagers, why don’t we try providing teenagers a path away from guns, by providing meaningful government employment and job training options?

• Instead of our children learning about guns the wrong way, why don’t we educate children about guns the right way?

• Instead of defunding the Police, why aren’t we defending the Police? You cannot significantly reduce crime by reducing the number of Police officers.

In an attempt to explore these alternative approaches, this book provides the framework for anyone, including ordinary citizens, Law enforcement, or our Members of Congress to reconsider how they are approaching these issues. The U.S. Supreme Court Judges are not opposed to correcting the problem, provided we can do so, without infringing on, or compromising, our original constitutional rights.

When you research the statistics on gun crimes from around the world, you quickly realize that there are approaches that work, and there are many steps we can take that would reduce crime in general, as well as gun crimes specifically.

As I read about these efforts, my opinion and beliefs about crime & punishment changed considerably.

I now know that there are many things we can do, that are not unconstitutional, and are not illegal. They just require all of us to wake-up and stop treating repeat offenders empathetically. First Offenders should be treated differently than Repeat Offenders. Anyone can make a serious mistake once. After that, all bets are off.

Deadly weapon use in the commission of a crime, needs to be treated differently than crimes where firearms were not used. Bail, parole, probation, and plea bargaining, as they are currently being used, in many cases, are undermining our efforts to deter crime.

I have taken the above themes, researched them, and wrapped them into what I call the Ultimate Gun Control Solution.

Read on…..

Introduction

We all talk about guns like we are talking about Potato Chips. This is a discussion about the purchase, use, and control, of who can possess a deadly weapon.

Sometimes I think we should require gun dealers to change their name to Deadly Weapon dealer. Clearly, the term gun does not convey the finality of using such a weapon, whether it is to merely to threaten or scare someone, or whether we actually intend to take away another human being’s life.

My mother use to warn my brother’s and I that if you own a gun, you will use it. For that reason, we were told, that if we ever bought a gun, we would not be allowed to bring it into her (our) house.

You may not mean to use it, or you may just want to intimidate someone, or impress someone, or scare someone, but in the heat of the moment, a loaded weapon can change everything.

This book is not for everyone, but if you are thinking of buying a gun, or already own one, this might help put the issue in a slightly different perspective. If you have teenage children, this might also serve as a great dinner table discussion some evening.

If you are an anti-gun advocate, I would hope that this book would enlighten your viewpoint, in the sense that you gain a better understanding why people want to hold onto their guns, and why they resist any effort to curtail or control their ability to do so. I would hope that you can respect the majority who support the second amendment, even though for many, that support is based as much on fear, as it is based on faulty facts. This is a complex issue and not one that is easily dismissed.

If you are a pro-gun advocate, it is time to acknowledge that while owning a gun is your right, there are certain responsibilities that come with that ownership, one of which, is a common-sense, non-intrusive registration policy.

For the record, I do not own a gun. I never have, and I do not plan to do so in the future. I have served in the military and was trained on how to use an M-16. I am familiar with these weapons. I wrote this book not to argue over the facts, but to seek solutions.

There are several pieces to the issue of firearm proliferation. First is, who has the right to purchase a firearm, including the ownership obligations & responsibilities, Secondly, are the Federal and State regulations affecting our use & ownership. Third, the consequences of using, or mis-using a firearm in the commission of a crime. Fourth, is the reality that criminals ignore the law, and repeat offenders must be dealt with harshly. Fifth, educate our children on the responsibilities & consequences of gun ownership.

In the following chapters, I try and dissect these issues and how the ultimate solution must deal with all of these elements, and yet retain our constitutional rights. I have broken this down into several themes;

• Societal impacts of banning guns before crime is controlled

• Accessibility to deadly weapons

• Negligent use or storage of a deadly weapon

• Types of deadly weapons

• Global firearm Statistics relative to deadly weapon use

• Consequences for crimes committed with deadly weapons.

• The impact of Mental health on community crime

• The education of both future & current gun owners.

By looking at these issues separately, and understanding how they are inter-connected, I believe a more workable, acceptable approach is both possible, and be effective at reducing firearm shootings & deaths.

Chapter One

Why current gun controls don’t work

The anti-gun ownership folks have the right idea about limiting access to guns, but I think they have their argument backwards. Their main theme seems to be based on taking away our guns first, so crime can be controlled or reduced. This would be like shutting down freeway access to all vehicles, because last month, some people were speeding, instead of identifying the Speeders and removing only those speeding drivers or their vehicles from the freeway.

My view is that as long as crime is NOT controlled, gun ownership will continue to increase and resistance to any effort to reduce gun ownership will also increase. This is why current gun control efforts per se, don’t work. We keep doing things that reinforce everyone’s worst fear, which in turn drives up gun sales.

_______________________

The key to getting acceptance of gun control efforts, are to first, reduce crime. Only when people feel safe will they listen to, or accept measures that will limit or reduce the need for gun ownership.

The old argument that if you take guns away from law-abiding citizens, only criminals will have guns, is a reality that many anti-gun folks refuse to acknowledge or even accept. Ironically, some gun protestors, are themselves, gun owners.

If crime continues to expand unabated, and if the authorities take no actions to take perpetual criminals out of society, I could eventually reach the conclusion, that I too, will need to protect myself and my family members, because our society has been unwilling and/or unable to do so.

Whether they realize it or not, all the Defund the Police zealots accomplished, was to ignite an explosive increase in gun sales, a huge jump in crime, and the loss of thousands of trained law enforcement officers, who exist to protect you and I, as well as those same radicals so opposed to law and order.

The empathetic view that criminals should be given a second chance, and a third chance, or more, is a nice thought, but once