‘Top Shot’ Chris Cheng Offers Better Alternatives to Gun Control

Despite being a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, the reality is that I also feel the death toll from the misuse of firearms is unacceptably high, though, unlike anti-gunners, I’m also pleased to see it drop in recent years. Especially when that drop just happened to coincide with the Bruen decision.

You know, the Supreme Court decision that was going to make the streets run red with blood, according to your not-so-friendly neighborhood anti-gunner.

Still, it’s higher than I’d like, and the fact that most so-called gun deaths are suicides makes it even more imperative that we do something.

However, writing at the Boston Herald, “Top Shot” winner Chris Cheng has far better alternatives than the gun control we already know doesn’t work.

This creates an opportunity to move beyond the tired political arguments that have dominated the gun debate for decades. If we want safer communities, we should focus on three priorities: education, enforcement and accountability.

First, the rise in lawful gun ownership demands a renewed commitment to firearms safety education. Every American who chooses to exercise their Second Amendment rights should have access to quality safety training and instruction.

Second, we must confront America’s mental health crisis. Walk the Talk America is one organization leading this work. Firearms manufacturers, dealers, distributors and gun owners are taking responsibility and doing their part to address America’s mental health crisis. Expanding access to treatment, improving support systems and reducing the stigma around seeking help should be national priorities.

Third, we must hold violent offenders accountable. Laws already exist to prosecute dangerous criminals. Communities become safer when those laws are consistently enforced, and repeat offenders face meaningful consequences for their actions.

Americans are telling us what they want. They want safe communities. They want responsible gun ownership. And they want a justice system that focuses on criminals rather than creating new burdens for law-abiding citizens.

And note that Cheng says “access to quality safety training and instruction.” He’s not saying it should be mandatory, only that people should be able to get it.

Unfortunately, when you make it hard to own a gun at all, you also make it harder to find training for those who do.

We absolutely need to hold violent offenders accountable, too. That should be a no-brainer, but the idea of “restorative justice,” which means no justice for victims, has become too prevalent to make this an easy point of unity. Still, it’s what we need.

On the second point, though, I’d like to take a minute and point something out that goes along a bit with what Cheng says here. Yes, the gun community is taking responsibility and doing what it can to reduce suicides. However, I’m going to argue that Massachusetts has actually made such suicides far more likely to happen.

How?

Universal background checks on firearm transfers.

See, if the black dog comes a-barking at my house, I can take my firearms and hand them to a trusted friend to hold onto. That way, I can’t get them while I might do something permanent. This is a simple way to remove guns from the equation. It might not prevent a suicide, but it does prevent a potential tool used for it, and many gun owners’ first thought when it comes to taking their own life.

Yet in Massachusetts, doing so could cause criminal charges. You’re handing a gun over to someone else–effectively a transfer, even if it’s temporary–without a background check being performed. 

“Just do the check, then,” someone might respond, but think about the mental state of someone contemplating taking their own life, of dealing with that degree of depression. Just getting out of bed can be a monumental task. Just asking someone to take the guns from you is huge. If it comes down to taking them to a gun dealer and going through the whole rigamarole to “transfer” them, then it’s just not going to happen.

I get the theory around universal background checks, and while I know good and well that criminals don’t do that sort of thing, so it’s ineffective at best, I understand why proponents like such laws.

Yet the laws have consequences. Fatal ones.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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