keep a gun out of the hands of people who clearly shouldn't have them,
We say this all the time. The other side says it all the time. It's just basic common sense, right? OK, now WHO are the people who "clearly shouldn't have a gun"???
That seems like such a simple answer, but is it, really?
Reason says the most important people to keep away from guns are those who have proven they will use guns to harm others for fun and profit. Not, may, or might, or could, but DID use guns to cause criminal harm to others.
in 1968, in the midst of a period of intense, and often violent political unrest, and following some shocking political assassinations, we passed a law that did that. And it did a LOT more.
For the first time in our nation's history, the law created classes of prohibited persons. Broad classes, which included not just those who "clearly shouldn't have a gun" but everyone in that class, no matter what put them there. Felons, underage, and mentally incompetent were, and are very broad classes. The only part of those where the individual's actual actions mattered was mentally incompetent. Under the law, each person deemed incompetent was judged individually. Underage was a simple blanket prohibition, with no exceptions, and felon was also a blanket coverage, no matter what it was that put you in the felon group, you were then forever after, a prohibited person. Mass murderers and those who got a felony conviction for having a forbidden plant in their yard were exactly the same under the law.
A few decades later, we added misdemeanor domestic violence conviction to the list of things that got one a lifelong prohibited person status.
What is going to be the next thing that gets you into prohibited person class? Not "liking" someone of Facebook? NRA membership??? voting for the "wrong" party?? Not being "socially conscious" enough?? Being put on a secret list?? Not wearing the required yellow star or pink triangle???
Gone is the presumption of innocence, we're ALL guilty until/unless we prove otherwise, with a "clean" background check. And we've discussed at length the reality of what that's worth.