20 dead in Orlando gay club shooting

[Wyrd of Gawd]

I'd love to have a system like they have in Japan where people are able to own guns, so long as they can prove they're responsible enough to be entrusted with a deadly weapon. The problem we're having is that irresponsible people don't want regulations that will prevent them from owning guns, and there are too damn many irresponsible people.

From an interview with a Japanese detective

“You have to bring your rifle in every year for inspection. You have to pass a drug test. You can’t have a criminal record. A doctor has to certify you’re mentally and physically healthy. You have to actually go to the firing range and show that you can use the weapon. If you have any sort of issue, we’re going to take away your firearms,” Detective X said.

Fairly similar to our system.

Japanese have always restricted who can possess weapons except for a few war years.  Before the start of the modern era only samurai could carry weapons.  They got guns very late.  Consequently they have a different mindset about guns than the typical American might have.

The interesting thing is that before the Revolutionary War the British made no attempt to restrict guns in the Colonies.  It was only after the slavers revolted that the issue of guns came up.  The newly minted Big Wigs weren't too keen on letting the riffraff have guns since they had used them so successfully during the war.  But the slavers wanted gun ownership guaranteed for them so that they could shoot and slaves that dared try their own revolution.  And since the plantations were isolated from population centers they got the Second Amendment written and adopted.

After the Civil War the racists passed a lot of Jim Crow laws that restricted or denied black people the means to possess guns.  They went wild passing all kinds of gun control laws that were meant to be applied specifically to black people.  That mindset is still applicable today but the anal retentives are doing their damnest to seize all guns from common people.  Basically they just want the Slave Patrol thugs to have guns.