Guns. Guns. Whatever are we to do about guns? Whatever are we to do about all of the homicides and mass shootings and suicides?
In short – whatever are we to do to balance Second Amendment rights to arms with societal needs and financial costs?
Aye, there’s the rub: finances. Tell me -- who’s to pay for the medical treatment of gunshot victims? Who’s to pick up the tab for support of the dependents and the widows and the orphans?
It’s taxpayers, that’s who. Taxpayers are the ones holding the bag.
This should not be so.
Perhaps you will recall the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998. The premise was that the Medicare and Medicaid programs should not have to cover sick smokers. As a result, tobacco prices rose sharply.
I suggest that the same rationale now should apply to the gun and ammunition industries.
We need a tobacco-like national settlement regarding guns. Unfair as it may seem upon first look, costs will be borne almost entirely by responsible gun owners.
However, I believe that guns and ammunition are by their very natures so inherently dangerous that payments into new trust funds should become a fundamental obligation of gun ownership.
To conclude: it should not – not -- fall to taxpayers to cover the collateral costs of gun injuries and deaths. It is instead the responsibility of gun users to pay for the unintended consequences.
I’m Scott Summers, and that is my perspective.
