We Must Never Forget Sandy Hook – Regulate and Tax the Bullets!

by Robert Wilkinson

Today is the anniversary of a tragedy we must never forget.

Mass murders in the US grow more frequent by the year. At the time, Sandy Hook was the second worst gun involved mass murder in the US history, with the VA Tech carnage in 2007 the worst mass murder by guns in US history. Though the circumstances are different in each case, whether then or more recent slaughters, these are abominations perpetrated by psychopaths against other human beings.

The scale of gun deaths in the US is staggering. And we cannot decrease gun violence with more guns. That hasn’t worked, and isn’t working. The policeman at the Colorado Planned Parenthood was armed and professionally trained, and he was still taken out very quickly.

I do not believe that violence will solve violence since it perpetuates violence. It doesn’t matter whether people who kill others are consciously or unconsciously psychopaths; you cannot solve killing with more guns.

This article is not an invitation to debate guns with me. I believe they are designed for one thing, and one thing only. To shoot bullets.

Bullets are designed for one, and one thing only. To be fired at an object. If the object is inanimate, it will be partly or wholly destroyed. If the object is alive, it will be partly or wholly destroyed. That is the only purpose firing bullets from a gun seems to have.

That is why in addition to my original proposal to tax bullets at much higher rates, I believe that all bullets and all materials to manufacture bullets, along with those who are allowed to sell bullets, should be highly regulated. All casings should have a marker that gives the origin of that bullet. All shooting range operators should have to collect each bullet casing shot at their facility, or account for those taken by the original shooter for making new ones.

Also require that the three components of bullets – smokeless powder, bullet heads, and cartridges – have some sort of chemical marker or other ways to identify them so that these could be tracked by the FBI. If these were marked, then any black market in these would be highly restricted, like we do now with large amounts of fertilizer as a result of the Oklahoma City mass bombing.

(To anticipate objections, eventually all the bullets in private hands would be legal bullets in the hands of law abiding people, while black market bullets would be very hard to get, especially in specific calibers. And with each casing monitored and able to be tracked, getting large quantities of bullets would become extremely difficult. We’d still wind up with less bullets in the hands of criminals.)

We could establish “state stores” (like some states do with alcohol sellers) who would be the sole legal seller of ammo and reloading supplies to people and clubs. We could establish a regulation that bullets and supplies to make them could be sold only to those who have passed a background check and can show they have taken course work on the duties of those with a license to possess deadly weaponry. As with driving, or many American professions, there should be licensure, they should have to be renewed every so often, and CEU courses taken to prove current competency to use a deadly weapon.

I wrote something 3 years ago when children were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In it I included something I proposed 8 years ago when students were slaughtered at VA Tech. You will find the very long article, along with various disputes and debates in the comment stream, at the link at the bottom of this article.

For those who was to dispute any of this, please go to the linked article and read what I’ve written about every challenge to my view of this urgent need. I printed the challenge, and my answers. So if you want to know where I stand on many things, including my philosophy about violence, please read that entire piece before posting something I’ve already answered.

Those who disagree the tenor of this or that post, or want to debate gun laws and the efficacy of violence as a deterrent to violence, please meditate on the law of "as you do so shall be done to you" instead of leaving a comment. Readers in other countries and other cultures may find some of the comments from the 2007 and 2012 articles interesting in revealing the mindset of some Americans.

While it’s a very long piece due to including those old comments, I felt it necessary in order to avoid a replay of old discussions. And because of past rude, inflammatory, or insulting comments about this topic, new ones fitting these descriptions will not be posted, but thoughtful ones will. Just letting you know. Grazie.

To give you a sense of my original proposal, here’s a small piece from the linked article:

I don't know if we can ever get rid of guns, since too much of the global economy depends on the sale of weaponry. There are too many who have a vested interest in weapons for them to give up what they see is their means of livelihood, as misguided as I believe that means of livelihood is. But we can and should tax bullets to the degree it takes to bring down the number of times anyone can commit mass murder, or even individual murder.

This is strictly a matter of economics. Let the guns be bought and sold. However, we should make the price of bullets so astronomical that people will think twice before spraying a bunch of them at anyone. It may not stop the crazies among us, but they could only do damage to the extent they could afford say, twenty dollars (or fifty, or a hundred dollars) a bullet.

Then instead of gang bangers spraying hundreds of bullets in drive by shootings, or lone crazies spraying a massive number of bullets into University classrooms, or in this case a 20 year old Goth nutjob carrying 3 guns (all the victims died from the assault rifle) and killing 27, we would have maybe a few dozen bullets or even a hundred discharged, not all of which hit targets. It wouldn't solve the problem, but it brings down the odds of any number of thousands of bullets finding human targets every year.

If the gunman at VT had to pay $2000 or $5000 for a hundred bullets, he might not have been able to afford the damage he did. If the psychopath at Sandy Hook had access to three of his mother’s guns but not that many bullets, the tragedy in Connecticut might not have shattered so many lives.

Our governments have taken the same approach to cigarettes, and it really has brought down the number of smokers in our country, both teen and adult. Young people cannot afford to smoke nicotine delivery systems with the same cavalier attitude that existed when I was young. Making cigarettes 15 times more expensive than they used to be has definitely cut the rate of smoking in the US.

The statistics seem to prove the efficacy of this approach to bringing down teen and adult smoking. If we can tax cigarettes, we can certainly tax bullets to the extent they put a burden on our public health system. There are just too many gunshot wounds in our emergency rooms across the country to debate that.

I closed my part of the commentary with this:

A final comment on our attitude about guns, violence, and “war” in whatever form it takes. It’s always been ironic to me that we feel very badly when one of our own does this to our own, but many turn a blind eye and cold heart when one of our own does it to people far away in the name of political policy. That's unacceptable in a world where we are all in fact ONE. One life, one love, one Earth, one humanity. Let us affirm this will be an awakening.

And now, Sandy Hook Elementary Is the United States - Let's Tax the Bullets!

Today I’ll close with something that should make my view clear: If guns don’t kill people, bullets do. That’s a fact. And bullets are shot from guns by people. Make the bullets much more expensive, and much harder to get or manufacture by criminals and psychopaths, and it’s guaranteed there will be fewer deaths of people killed by bullets shot from guns by people who are crazy or have bad intent. If it works for cigarettes, I’m willing to try it with bullets.

REGULATE AND TAX THE BULLETS!!

© Copyright 2007, 2015 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Nic]

Hi Robert, it is a good idea and there is nothing to lose and much to gain. So why not try it as so many other things are highly taxed (alcohol, tobacco, etc.)
It would also be interesting to consider why the American people are so involved and "sees the need for guns". Besides the economic gains of few and their powerful lobbing and propaganda, there appears to be other reasons or factors involved in this culture towards guns and weapons that is so unique to the US. Is it that many Americans live in fear and therefore need guns to be "safe" Why are they so fearful? Of what? Is that how people feel in The Land of the Free? How does America value life and from what point of view if so many people are killed and shot at? There are many issues (causes) that would be interesting for many to ponder upon.
Blessings be to all.

[Peggy]

I'll never forget that day as long as I live. I still think we should have taken pictures many many pictures of that room with those children and plasted them all over every newspaper
magazine internet YouTube. Let them really see what really happens. Why not nothing else seems to work. The show everything else so why not that. Let them see what they've done they, them with the guns and the bullets. What happened to the outrage? Thanks again Robert.

[sue]

Smart guns...and price bullets the same as a barrel of oil
...and price oil the same as a bullet...
maybe then an end to man-made murder and mayhem...

Now we're a nation with more bullets than brains
Armed to the teeth and going insane
Toxic addictions and violent games
Follow the money and know who to blame