Another mass shooting.....

[The Grand Nudger]

Not to mention that if a guy says he's gonna use a Glock for hunting...he's probably lying.  The guy buying a bolt-action rifle, not so much.

I've seen it. It seems silly to me, but people do hunt with glocks. You know what, fine, let em. No law against it. I just want to make sure that the person who says he's going to hunt with a gun isn;t secretly fantasizing about shooting a person with the thing before he even buys it.

As much as they push bullshit, there is one position that the NRA is correct on, and that is that - as you say - existing law is not strongly enforced.  Of course they have an agenda in pushing that angle, but the fact of the matter is it's true.  Unlicensed de facto dealers, straw purchases, etc - all unlawful, and inadequately enforced.

Oregon and Washington have both instituted universal background checks for person-to-person sales.  Practically speaking, this means that such sales are required to be handled via a licensee.

So have 20 other states.  Predictably, p2p guns flow into background states from non background p2p states, this is also recorded in the trace reports.  

Years ago I was a hard-line strong 2nd amendment advocate, but no part of the constitution is a suicide pact.  

Exactly.  We've long since accepted and expected reasonable restrictions of our rights in the interest of public safety.  Can't yell fire in a theater, either....and for the same reason..if someone did yell fire in a theater, we don't expect to hear a volley of small arms sounding off.  If we can handle this issue without further restrictions to our rights..then we should do that.  If we can't.....then it's bye bye beretta.

There's little that can be done about the millions already out there, but as you have said, the average firearm is gathering dust in a closet.  I used to own a collection of old war relics and a few modern guns.  When I made the decision to go gun-free, not one had been out of storage in 15 years.  I know a guy locally who probably owns close to a thousand guns, all old war relics, completely unsuitable for much of anything, and gathering dust.  I have no idea how ubiquitous that experience is, but I don't think the guy with a closet full of dusty Mosin-Nagants and Mausers is much of a threat to anyone.

I think Sama posted the stats earlier, on what percentage of americans own guns vs how many there are.  Your experience is representative. 

Better enforcement, better scrutinization of transfers, and more effective removal of firearms from prohibited persons is needed.

Desperately.  More than that, in all likeliohood, as well.  It would be a hell of a start though. We'e just so blatantly doing the opposite of that it;s difficult to fathom, and it's not like a person can argue that we're not defunding enforcement on purpose with an ounce of integrity. I remember reading an article somewhere, that opinined on the subject to the effect that..iof what you -wanted- to do was create a toothless enforcement agency which then lead to the very problem that agency was tasked with stopping..the ATF is the model.