Enforce gun safety ~ echo opinion in Michigan and Alabama

A "stereo echo" opinion ~ a Mobile Alabama letter published in Michigan and now in this blog. In this opinion, David Preston presents a potential enforcement that caused him to change his mind about enforcement through liability premiums.

3 ideas to reduce gun violence emerged from my conversations with 150 Americans | Opinion by David Preston

Editor's note: David Preston, of Mobile Alabama, was one of 21 people who went to Washington, D.C., in March to participate in "Guns, An American Conversation." 

Local newsrooms from across the US brought together 21 D.C. attendees and more than 100 other engaged readers with a broad spectrum of opinions to talk about guns in an honest and civil way, through a closed Facebook group.

By some estimates, there are just about as many guns in America as there are Americans. And yet, amid all the talk about gun control, we haven't had a frank discussion about responsible gun ownership.

Let's have one.

In my home city of Mobile, Alabama, for instance, the district attorney, the police chief and the public safety director have recently been begging gun owners to at least lock their vehicles and/or take their weapons inside their home with them at night.

The week after the Parkland, Florida, high school massacre, (at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School) the District Attorney for Mobile County Ashley Rich went on the local radio to say 90 percent of all the gun violence committed in our community is from illegal guns. 

In 2012, NOLA.com reported that approximately 70 percent of all of the illegal guns on the street of New Orleans came from unlocked vehicles. Mobile Alabama Police Chief Lawrence Batiste said recently the No. 1 item stolen out of vehicles, in Mobile, are guns.

Thieves aren't doing some stealthy maneuver to gain access to these vehicles, either, officials say. All they are doing is going to your parked vehicle in your driveway or your carport and pulling on the door handle.

This month, "Guns, An American Conversation," sponsored by Advance Local, moderated, online conversations with nearly 150 people from all over the country from all sides of the gun debate. We're talking -- in a civil way -- about what we can do to make our country safer. Personally, I own a small handgun.

I've summarized some of the ideas that have emerged from our group, for your consideration:

1. Suspend concealed-carry permits for improper storage. If you have your weapon stolen from your unlocked vehicle, then you should have your concealed-carry permit suspended for a specific period of time. Say up to a year.

I find this idea more appealing than having the person pay a $1,000 fine -- as they do in California -- because it doesn't give the government an opportunity to turn it into a revenue source. This approach also doesn't victimize the victim of a theft twice. Furthermore, it does not infringe upon one's Second Amendment right to own a handgun. This idea does not take away your weapons or even restrict your ability to carry. (In the state of Alabama, you don't need a permit to open carry.)

Federal prison for those in possession of illegal guns. This idea comes from the Richmond, Virginia, program Project Exile. The program, which was suspended in 2016 and is now being reconsidered, was such that if you are caught with an illegal gun, you don't go to state court and get charged with the state-level crime. You go to federal court. Richmond teamed up with its local U.S. attorney to charge anyone caught with an illegal weapon, either stolen or a person prohibited from owning a weapon, with a federal crime that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.

3. Liability insurance. People would likely change their behavior if they were on the hook for potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.

This is the area in which I have personally most evolved after a robust discussion in the online group. First, I wanted this to be charged as a misdemeanor crime, then to mandatory gun-owner's liability insurance.  Here's the position I hold today: Homeowner's insurance companies should write gun owner's liability as a special rider to their homeowner's policy. The insurance industry did this after hurricanes Katrina and Ivan. Because the insurance companies lost their shirt on those hurricanes, they put their money and time into research into understanding how buildings are built and how they could be built to better withstand hurricanes. 

That is why you now have the bronze-, silver- and gold-fortified standards in the construction industry. Gold-fortified homeowner's insurance rates are much lower than standard rates. If insurance companies offered insurance policies for gun owners, they would pour that same kind of effort into research into understanding guns and the broader gun culture in America. There are other ideas on how we could reduce gun violence in America without infringing upon Second Amendment rights. Our group conversation is just one place where hard questions are being asked. What more can we do in our communities? David Preston is a small business owner and a citizen concerned about gun violence. 

He lives in Mobile. Follow him on Twitter @dpreston2020