Side story on the recent gun spree

[carl]

The guns most frequently used in crime (and even non-crime gun violence) are overwhelmingly cheap semi-automatic pistols.

I am not so sure about the "cheap" part. Most of the guns hoods had that I saw were stolen and thieves stole what people had, and a lot of what they had was good. Slap would know much more about this.

Again, what we need to focus on is keeping guns from getting into the hands of people who should not have them. That means un-castrating the ATF, it means monetizing gun busts for local law enforcement the way drug busts are handled now, it means enacting stronger penalties for straw buyers (here's a thought: jail time! We put guys in jail for years for ounces of weed, but we hand out light fines for pounds and pounds and pounds of guns?), it means lowering the evidence threshold to prosecute (again, currently you must show separate, concrete criminal intent for each and every gun in an alleged straw buy--it's ridiculous).

Sounds sensible to me. I don't know how castrated the ATF actually is but the idea of adding crook guns to the preferred list (what I saw) of drunks and drugs is great. I think that many if not most of those guns are stolen. A program to help owners record and remember the serial numbers of their weapons would be of immense help. Perhaps a voluntary program whereby the owner is given a stiff laminated document with the serial number of the gun and a photo of it upon purchase would help, anything that will enable them to report a serial number if the thing is stolen.