This question isn't being asked to spark another crazy ass debate, but if you were in charge, what gun control measures would you have in place?
Well, the problem right now is that criminals (or law-abiding citizens who decide to become criminals) have very easy access to firearms, mostly due to how available they are. The primary obstacle than is reducing the supply of firearms.
People tend to respond to this part with an all-or-nothing approach, which is just silly. If you tell people tomorrow to turn in their guns, yes, then the only people left with guns will be the people that laugh. Start by restricting the manufacture and import of new firearms- reduce the supply of
new weapons. Simultaneously, require police to destroy all stolen and unregistered firearms. If you can't keep a gun safe enough to prevent it from being stolen, you don't deserve to keep it. Very few new weapons- and those of limited class, such as single-shot style hunting rifles- being introduced, plus the destruction of the current illegal supply, will reduce the amount of weapons available.
The next step- and understand I'm talking years, not months- would be to start restricting what people are legally allowed to possess
in their home. I would set up shooting clubs where people would store their weapons under a professional, secure setting. I trust central points of administration, where protection resources can be targeted, a whole hell of a lot more than I trust every individual owner to properly secure their firearms. Require people to store gradually increasing classes of firearms at these shooting clubs when not in immediate use. (Before you say, "couldn't someone just pick up their gun and shoot up a college", the answer is yes. As long as guns exist, you will never absolutely prevent shootings. However, you can drastically reduce the incidence of them, which is my goal. If 10,000 people get murdered per year by firearms instead of 30,000, that's an accomplishment.) Eventually, all firearms would be required to be stored at these clubs- not Fish + Game type clubs either, but professional security companies specializing in firearms storage- and there would be very severe penalties for being in illegal possession of a firearm.
Meanwhile, increase penalties for firearms violations, including improper care of a firearm. Firearms violations should be looked at as a Serious Fucking Deal in this country, and not just when they're linked to drugs. They shouldn't be something you can plea down to six months.
Criminals aren't immune to economics. If there are fewer firearms, and they are harder to obtain, they become more costly. If you can't afford a firearm, or the twenty years in prison you'd receive for illegally possessing one outside of a shooting club, you will likely resort to less lethal, more affordable methods.
If you're looking for absolute security, I hate to burst your Clancy-bubble, but you don't have that now.
