POV: My Opinion About Stuff

Aaron Schwartz

OK, I know I'm a little behind the curve on this one, but a post on my Yahoo Finance feed featuring 29 year old multi-millionaire Alexis Ohanian, techie co-founder of reddit.com, got me thinking.

Aaron Schwarz was a techie-geek who felt strongly that research funded by the tax dollars of "We the People" should be public domain. He was being persecuted and prosecuted by the federal government  for hacking web files at MIT. At the age of 26, he hanged himself.

I, for one, agree with Ohanian and Schwartz that the internet should be open and accessible to all. In particular, I feel that as a taxpayer, I should have access to publicly funded research. And I believe that internet access should be available at no cost to any and all Americans.

The Gun Debate

Now, before you get all up in arms (ha-ha, pun intended), let me preface this post by saying that I grew up in northern Wisconsin, where the annual deer hunt was de rigueur, in a home where an array of guns was displayed on a wooden wall rack hand-crafted by my father, the ammo readily available in a bottom tray. As a child, I learned to shoot a .22 and a shotgun on my grandparent's farm, and shot bow and arrow at targets with my dad and brother. My son and two sons-in-law are all in the military, and are all gun enthusiasts. So, as you can see, I am not totally ignorant of guns and the culture of guns.

However, also as a child, I witnessed an episode where an unnamed relative was hell-bent on shooting another unnamed relative the minute he walked in the door. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that she didn't know how to load the damn gun. Let's just say that that was one hell of a domestic dispute, the memory of which has stuck with me to this day. Many gun murders are crimes of passion, committed by registered gun owners or their loved ones, in their own homes.

But here's the thing. Here in the United States, we register automobiles and require driver's licenses as a means to ensure the safety of all, because automobiles can also become lethal weapons when driven by intoxicated drivers, or unlicensed drivers, or car thieves out for a joy ride.  Licensing and registration give us a means to establish statistics, to identify unsafe drivers, to track down stolen vehicles and to discourage unsafe driving behaviors. Registered vehicles bring in substantial revenues to the states.

Would it be such a horrible idea to establish a similar system for qualifying gun owners and registering guns? It is not a total solution for diminishing gun violence against innocent victims, but it is a start.