JH1951. Your post hits on a subject that I have been noticing for some time. There are a lot of first time buyers who have no knowledge of how to safely handle their firearms. Previous generations grew up learning how to safely and effectively use guns. Even if you weren't a farmboy there was ROTC and the boy scouts. It was a skill that was taught as you were growing up. Now we have people buying guns who have no knowledge what so ever. More than once working behind the counter I had people wanting to buy ammo who didn't even know what their gun used. I had customers who would get outright angry and rude that I couldn't just sell them some "regular bullets". I know this will meet with some resistance here but I honestly believe that there should at least be an online safety course that you need to take before being allowed to buy your first gun. Once passed it would be good for life and would at least provide some knowledge of the basic fundementals of safe gun handling. In a lot of states (like mine) you need to pass a basic course to get your hunting license if you're a minor. It's not a big deal and I don't feel it infringes on anyone's rights. If anything, by making them more aware and more comfortable with guns it may reduce the number of anti gun people who are that way just because they don't know any better.
I made a similar comment on facebook in a thread started by one of my wife's friends. Short version is some lady replied and said with all the guns being sold we'll see a big spike in homicides.
I replied "No. We won't" and then posted the stats on gun sales by year since 1993, which is when the homicide rate peaked in the US. We've made 120 million guns in the US since 1993 and imported another 60 million, and the gun homicide rate has on average declined fairly steadily.
I added my experiences with gun show comments as described above, and stated that I didn't negatively judge any of those people for seeing the need for a gun for personal protection.
However I added that I did judge them negatively for waiting until the last minute, and not getting proper training in both firearm safety and in the laws pertaining to the use of deadly force. The odds are high that some of them will do stupid stuff with their new guns in terms of either a negligent discharge, or getting themselves into legal trouble using a gun when it's not legal or appropriate to do so.
I'm in total agreement that given the greatly reduced presence of firearms in the average home and the now almost non existent exposure to firearms and firearms safety in schools, making some form of gun safety mandatory prior to an initial firearm purchase is a good idea, even if it is just an on-line course they can take in the gunshop in 20-30 minutes prior to the sale (and waiting for the NICS check to through.
I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, and in 6th grade pretty much all the guys and many of the girls took the NRA hunter safety course, which was conducted every spring after school - in one of the classrooms. It was also common for schools to have air rifle and small bore rifle teams. I grew up in a rural area and virtually everyone had a firearm in the home with at least one parent who raised kids with a knowledge of and respect for guns.
Those guns lived in gun racks, unlocked closets, and unlocked glass faced display cabinets. No one got shot.
However that is just not the case today in most areas of the country. Consequently, we need to have some mechanism in place to ensure that gun owners do in fact have some minimum level of training in gun safety. It needs to be free or at a nominal cost of $5 or less, and it needs to be readily available so that it doesn't pose an additional burden, hurdle, or restriction on gun ownership, but that can easily be accomplished.
