I have been told many times that my memory is exceptional.  I’m not saying this to brag; it’s just what I’ve been told.  I’ve described it in the past as a figurative landfill of information, but that gives the impression that it’s all useless.

Lately I’ve come up with a better analogy.  My memory is much like a vast collection of Lego bricks.  Individually, each piece may not necessarily form a particular shape that is immediately coherent, but given enough of them and arranged in the right ways, it starts to show detail and convey and idea.

My memory is much the same ways with bits of information.  Most of the time, they’re simply loose facts that circle in my mind with no real purpose or cohesion, but sometimes I may put them together to convey an idea.

I grew up in South Florida and was a child of the 80’s.  To me, the ability to drive was synonymous with freedom and independence.  Many friends spend hours of their sixteenth birthday getting their driver’s license; I wasn’t among them.  I won’t tell you that I was a prototypical teenager, but I still wanted the ability to go where I wanted and when I wanted.  That involved driving.

I tried public transportation.  To return from the gaming club where I met my friends, I’d need to take two buses, with a forty-five-minute wait between the two.  The trip would frequently take 90 minutes for what would be a 25-minute drive.  I’d occasionally elect to walk home after the first bus, carrying the bag full of gaming books.

Times change of course, my friends who are parents tell me that these days teenagers are not in a particular hurry to get their license.  I’m not sure why there’s such a stark difference; maybe it has something to do with the ability to do so much online.

Reflecting upon driving, I can summarize my personal experiences pretty neatly:

• I didn’t take driver’s education in school.  I believe it was offered, but I didn’t want it to take up the slot of something that was more useful, like chemistry or trigonometry.
• I got a learner’s permit at 15 and learned to drive with the instruction of my mom and sister.  I am nearsighted; I need contact lenses (or glasses) to drive.
• I got my driver’s license at 16 (weeks after my birthday).
• I learned to drive a manual transmission (my sister’s Mustang) years later (late teens or early 20’s).  About half of my cars have had manual transmissions.
• I got a motorcycle learner’s permit many years later, when I took the motorcycle class here in Washington (and failed it).  I got a motorcycle around that time.
• Years after that I took the class again when a friend was interested, I passed it the second time.

With that said, here are my observations around the rules and regulations about operating a vehicle.  I’m sure that my experiences aren’t exhaustive, but it’s probably a good proxy for how laws work in general.  I will not claim that I’ve obeyed every single rule all the time (nor do I imagine has anyone), but for better or worse here they are:

• We make a distinction between buying a car and operating the car.  Anyone can buy a car, even if they can’t drive it home.  We establish more rules around operating the car (driving).  To that end, we want to know if you’re reasonably competent to drive (hence the license) and will hold you accountable if you’re not (traffic citations).  This allows us to rent cars when we travel.
• There’s a restriction in my license (C – Corrective Lenses) that suggests that I need contact lenses or glasses to drive.  This is completely reasonable; I do need corrective lenses to drive.  I do not object to this being on my license.
• There are certain restrictions which will get your license revoked.  The rationale is that you are not able to drive safely.  Such conditions include your sight deteriorating to the point where you’re legally blind and being diagnosed with epilepsy (and having recent seizures).
• There are other restrictions in Washington, like Ignition Interlocked License (breathalyzer tied to your ignition) or Occupational Restricted License (you may only drive home or work, to make a living). 
• I am licensed to drive a motorcycle.  This is what is called an endorsement on your license; it’s not a separate license.  I had to take a knowledge test and a riding skills test.  If you’re pulled overriding a motorcycle without an endorsement, you can be issued a citation (though this seldom happens).
• As far as I know, there’s nothing special in your license that would denote that you can drive a manual transmission (stick shift).  I could certainly understand if we, the government, wanted to make that distinction with another endorsement, which would logically entail a driving test (and possibly a knowledge test).  I personally wouldn’t object to that; in fact, I think it’d be pretty nifty to have that endorsement.
• There are a couple of other licenses:  chauffeur (limousines and the like) and commercial (long haul trucks).

Suffice it to say, there are many rules that govern our ability to operate a vehicle.  I imagine there are even more rules of which I’m not aware.

Orthogonally, there are also rules to buying and selling of vehicles, even among private citizens.  If you sell a vehicle, you need to fill out a form on the title and drop it in the mail.  This will inform the state that it has changed ownership.  Suffice it to say, that if you should happen to encounter a vehicle, it can be tracked by either license plate or VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) on the dash or door jam.  It’s someone’s car and it our collective responsibility to track this appropriately.

That said, most of the above rules, while they may span a wide range of situations are reasonable…  They make sense.  I should be required to wear corrective lenses when operating a vehicle.  I should take training to operate a motorcycle.  If I should want to drive for a living (either people for entertainment or cargo over long distances), I should be subjected to more training, more verification, and more scrutiny.

In a similar light, I understand the desire for myself and/or my family to be safe, yet I am perplexed at the emotional reactions to establishing reasonable rules by which you can acquire and operate a firearm.

Before you go screaming your head off, I am not suggesting that we should get rid of firearms altogether, nor am I necessarily suggesting that we take anything off the market.  Please read that sentence again carefully.  Everything I suggest going forward is consistent with the above statement.

Why has the second amendment become so sacrosanct that regulating it cannot even be brought up in conversation?  I’ve gotten into more than one conversation where there’s strong (almost violent) push back on any regulation.  We can’t even get into a discussion of what could be considered ‘reasonable’.  Any regulation is chipping away at our rights and liberties?  It’s almost as if the phrase, “Surely there must be a way to establish reasonable standards to sell, operate, and carry a firearm”  has been transformed to “fondle your teenage daughter“.

“No!  This is not up for discussion!”…  Why?  Why has even the mention of managing this become such a taboo subject?

As it happens, access to driving is managed a little differently than access to firearms.  Driving is managed mostly at the time of operation, not at the time of purchase.  Regulations around firearms are mostly managed at the time of purchase, not operation (maybe because the latter are infrequent enough and mistakes are catastrophic).  We generally manage the purchase of firearms, not the act of shooting them.

I’m going to omit mental conditions for now, but which physical limitations will prevent you from driving a car?  As mentioned before:

• Legal blindness.
• Epilepsy (with recent seizures, you can petition to get reinstated).
• Loss of the use of all limbs (as in quadriplegic).

There’s generally little pushback on these, for the sake of everyone’s safety.  Would you be surprised that people have made a case for gun access for people with epilepsy, quadriplegic, and even blind people?

Okay, wrap your head around that…  The idea of limiting access of firearms is so taboo that a member of NRA News has made the case that blind people should be able to buy and carry guns.

When I have bought and sold vehicles, I have registered them and transferred ownership on the title.  I’ve sent that to the state to update their records.  I don’t see how a standard that requires the same for gun ownership is excessive or inappropriate.

I spent close to three days learning how to operate a motorcycle.  I spent hours in a classroom session and took an exam.  I then spent two weekend days getting comfortable operating a motorcycle.  I learned the names of my classmates; my instructors knew me by name and were able to attest to my mental and physical competence (or lack thereof first time) in operating a motorcycle.  I felt that it was the responsible thing to do.

I don’t think that it’s an unreasonable expectation that, in order to buy and operate an AR-15, I should be subjected to a similar level of scrutiny.  Do you?

How is it that we’ve become so intractably set to giving everyone access to firearms in a way where they’re managed less restrictively than driving a car?

Does this makes sense to you?

If you’re a responsible gun owner, can you not come up with a set of guidelines that will allow you to own and operate your firearm and prevent mass shootings?  Is there really no way to distinguish between you and the person who kills eight people in Atlanta?

I am making two suggestions:

• There are some people who should not have access to firearms (or at least all types of firearms); let’s work together to establish some sensible ways to identify them.  This is similar to the blind people can’t get a driver’s license rule.
• You require training and certification to handle a firearm and the more specialized the firearm (like assault rifles) the more training and certification you need.  Let’s work together to establish what this training and certification process entails.  This is similar to getting a driver’s license and then getting an additional motorcycle endorsement (or chauffeur’s or commercial driver’s license).