Gun Rights Lesson #313 – Treat Guns Like Driving

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of a series of articles on gun rights. Each addresses a common anti-gun trope.

“We register cars and require driver’s licenses! We should regulate guns the way we regulate cars!”

This argument is a hoot. The people who espouse it, it’s safe to say, have neither given more than a few seconds thought to it nor have any inkling of how gun laws work in America.

First, lets consider what is required to get a driver’s license, in general. Assuming you are of a certain age, (14-17 typically), you study a pamphlet, take a written test, and receive your learner’s permit. It’s not a particularly hard test. After that, you can drive a car on public roads with a licensed driver present. After the written test, you take a road test. Basic proficiency means you get your license. If you need glasses, you have to wear them to drive. If you have some other disability that limits your ability to drive a conventional car, you may have some other restrictions.

The key: Just about anyone can get a driver’s license, at little cost and with rudimentary proficiency. Do this with guns and nine states that are “may issue” (CA, DE, NY, CT, DC, HI, MD, MA, NJ, combined population 87M people) and numerous cities in other states (like Chicago) lose their ability to deny people their gun rights. If, as I suspect many do, the proponents of the “regulate like cars” arguments live in those states, their argument actually benefits the pro-gun side.

Consider, next, that felons are allowed to get driver’s licenses. Currently, felons are debarred from possessing firearms of any sort. Ask your anti-gun friends who espouse the “regulate like cars” argument if they’re copacetic with this.

Furthermore, you only need a license to drive on public roads. You don’t need one to be a passenger in a vehicle, presumably because it is driving, not riding, that requires enough proficiency not to be an imminent menace to other vehicles. You also don’t need a license to drive on private property. By the “regulate like cars” argument, everyone would have the completely unfettered right to own and shoot firearms on their own property or, by invitation, on others’.

Second, registration. As with driving, you only need to register (and insure) your vehicle if you intend to drive it on public roads. So, if we “regulate like cars,” no one can be mandated to register firearms used solely on private property. And, just as we can put a car on a flatbed for transport, we’d be free to transport our firearms from Point A to Point B without registering them.

Still, some might argue, this would require anyone who wanted to use a gun in public (and, by extension, carry one for self defense with the possibility of using it) to get a license and to register. This is already the law in the vast majority of the country, although (as of the date of this article) eleven states are now “constitutional carry” i.e. some form of carry (open or concealed) is legal without a permit. Plus, the core reason for mandating drivers’ licenses is because drivers, when driving, are in perpetual use of their vehicles in close proximity to others. Owning or carrying a pistol is not “using” a pistol in that the individual is not continually firing that pistol. A holstered pistol poses no perpetual hazard to those around it.

So, the “regulate like cars” argument would actually expand gun rights dramatically in most jurisdictions – not something the argument’s proponents expect or want.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t draw the critical distinction between driving on public roads and gun ownership. Driving on public roads is not a right. You cannot be denied the right to travel on them, but operating a motor vehicle on public roads is considered a privilege that can be revoked. The right to bear arms, however, is just that: a right, not a privilege. You have the absolute, irrevocable right to defend yourself from harm, and a gun is a tool that facilitates that right.

So,

Gun rights lesson #313: By all means, try to regulate guns like cars. You’ll be improving the gun rights of tens of millions of people.

• About the Author

About Peter Venetoklis

I am twice-retired, a former rocket engineer and a former small business owner. At the very least, it makes for interesting party conversation. I'm also a life-long libertarian, I engage in an expanse of entertainments, and I squabble for sport.

Nowadays, I spend a good bit of my time arguing politics and editing this website.

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