Sunlight Kills Vampires

One year later and the victims of Sandy Hook still in our hearts… Lots of surprising things happened over the past year politically and legislatively; we discovered, for example, that right-wingers and left-wingers alike want #privacy. But what about the tonz ’o‘ gunz being used to hurt people? Some very knowledgeable and educated folks who taught me a lot about security are totally opposed to gun control, and this piece is written for them in particular because, after all, why preach to the choir?

How can we address the memory of those killed at Sandy Hook, and the countless other victims of heartbreaking and meaningless gun violence?

Well how about treating guns the way we treat other dangerous machines? How about looking into requiring insurance or at least encouraging insurance-related regulations in order to promote more responsible possession of consumer firearms? How about biometric locks for consumer firearms? Then the only person who could operate a particular firearm would be the person(s) to whom it is registered, who ostensibly passed some sort of safety competency test (and anyone who can hack the lock...). Yes, I know, 3D printed guns and the like. Whatever, baby steps people. The US military requires background checks when issuing certain types of arms to members of its ranks, why not the rest of us? It's not about disarming the people, but rather about teaching us all to be more responsible gun owners; same goes for nation-states, IMHO. The Due Process Clause of the Unites States Constitution would continue to protect an individual’s right to bear arms.

The other suggestion of the day has to do with privacy; perhaps the attorney general of the state where such heinous massacres take place could have the option to release the results of the toxicology screen of the perpetrator to the public. It's just an educated guess, but I bet some of these malfeasors were all on the same prescription drugs. 

So… the gun lobby and pharma lobby would never let above happen? All the more reason to push for publicly financed elections. We are losing our democracy to a precious few who never have to walk among the rest of us and who pay others to do dirty work they are too afraid to do themselves. It's time to force them out into the light of day. Remember: sunlight kills vampires.