Unless you are just using your handgun for sport, this sort of defeats the purpose of having one for defense. And as long as you are just using it for sport, why not just have a 2-key lock, and you give the second key to your trusted buddy.
At any rate, I applaud any efforts to curb handgun deaths. I personally think handgun purchases should come with a free suicide prevention pamphlet or similar. I've long argued that if people really cared specifically about gun deaths, handguns should be the first and primary target, not "ghost guns" and bump stocks and other rarely-used (but scary sounding) accessories.
Handguns aren't particularly useful in war either compared to rifles, are easily concealable, and are just all around bad news. I think most of America's "gun epidemic" could be solved just by cracking down exclusively on handguns (for both civilians and police) and not bothering with rifles. It's counter-intuitive because a lot of mass shooters use rifles, but if you look at the numbers, the total number of people that die from mass shootings (and rifles in general) is very small, especially when compared to handgun deaths.
I generally agree with this viewpoint. In most countries with moderate gun control measures, the categories of weapon that are most restricted are handguns and fully auto weapons (SMGs, select fire ARs etc). The reason for this is that there’s virtually no reason why a person would need one other than killing people. I am not an expert, but I’m certain that handguns are just massively over represented in gun violence compared to say, shotguns or rifles. I also think this goes for law enforcement. I especially expect that handguns are over represented in suicides. Does anyone have any statistics that would confirm or deny my gut feeling here?
You're right, most murders in the U.S. are committed with handguns. About 63% in the U.S., but probably more since there's an "unreported" category[0].
That said, gun laws in the U.S. preserve the right to bear arms specifically for the purpose of killing people: the right to bear arms is one of the checks and balances on government power. There are people who make the argument that the ownership of non-military weapons is not protected by the second amendment.
Before curbing the "gun epidemic" I'd look up how many lives are saved vs how many are unrightfully taken. A proxy for the first number is the number of burglaries - about 1.5 millions per year. A proxy for the second is about 10 thousands - all gun related deaths excluding suicides and internal gang disputes.
Again though, defensive gun uses is not a proxy for lives saved. In general adding guns to a situation where murder is not the intent will increase the number of lives lost.
In a situation where a criminal breaks into someone's house and brandishes a knife, the intent doesn't matter and the criminal shouldn't have agency to decide the outcome. I think this is what rubs me the wrong way about your comment: who gets to decide the outcome - the robber or the one being robbed.
It’s a better proxy than burgs. Also, the definition implies that the firearm was used defensively, that is, it’s presence helped avoid a deadly confrontation
At any rate, I applaud any efforts to curb handgun deaths. I personally think handgun purchases should come with a free suicide prevention pamphlet or similar. I've long argued that if people really cared specifically about gun deaths, handguns should be the first and primary target, not "ghost guns" and bump stocks and other rarely-used (but scary sounding) accessories.
Handguns aren't particularly useful in war either compared to rifles, are easily concealable, and are just all around bad news. I think most of America's "gun epidemic" could be solved just by cracking down exclusively on handguns (for both civilians and police) and not bothering with rifles. It's counter-intuitive because a lot of mass shooters use rifles, but if you look at the numbers, the total number of people that die from mass shootings (and rifles in general) is very small, especially when compared to handgun deaths.