“Instead of gun control we should have bullet control.
If each bullet cost five thousand dollars, people would think twice before they shoot someone!” said Chris Rock in one of his stand-up acts.
In some ways, Chris Rock is right.
Our founding fathers wrote in the second amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
What they meant could not have been further from what our nation has interpreted the second amendment to be.
The right to bear arms comes with two conditions, the keeping of a “well regulated Militia” for “the security of a free State.” It was never meant to mean anyone who wishes to have firearms should have one.
Today, a majority of the population who owns firearms are not in a militia. Certainly with recent events such as the Washington, D.C. sniper(s) and high school shootings, we have all come to see that firearms are not a means toward “the security of a free State.”
However, now that we have come so far down this road to hell, it is too little too late to begin placing restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
What we can do is control the item that turns a mere chunk of metal into a dangerous killing machine, bullets. Bullets should be heavily taxed, say $1000 per bullet, by the United States government with the resulting revenue being placed into the Homeland Security fund. This solves two problems.
One, this still allows any resident of the United States to purchase and possess a firearm.
For anyone who has purchased a gun for the purpose of personal safety, they will be willing to buy one or two bullets.
These expensive bullets will certainly be considered a valuable item and will be locked away. Bullets are easier to hide than guns and hence lower the possibility of theft.
For those wishing to go on a shooting spree, each bullet will certainly make them think twice before using one. Currently, a .233-caliber bullet, the same used by the sniper(s) in the Washington, D.C. area, costs around 18-20 cents.
To the sniper(s), the killing of 10 people set him back a mere $2, not even enough for a McDonald’s Big Mac.
How can we expect such people to put any value on human life when the cost of the death of 10 is less than a cheap meal at McDonalds’s?
Two, since the purpose of the right to bear arms was for “the security of a free State,” the revenue from the bullet tax would help further Homeland Security. As in “Spiderman,” “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
When you can have the power to kill, you should help pay for the security of others.
Contact your Congress-woman Louise Slaughter and your senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Tell them you are fed up with gun violence.
He is a freshman and can be reached at mhe@campustimes.org.
