Steps to gun control

It’s become all too familiar. Troubled person legally obtains firearm. Kills people.

Since we have demonstrated time and again our inability to identify these patients with any degree of accuracy, do we just adopt the TSA standard and say no guns, nowhere, no way? Obviously the NRA would never hear of it, but perhaps there are some steps we can take.

First, unfetter physicians by allowing them to ask patients about firearms. Create an encrypted national registry of persons who have been treated for psychiatric problems that could be queried, but not browsed, as part of the background check. (We have one for felons.) Require prospective buyers to pass an independently administered drug test.

A gross invasion of privacy? Perhaps.

But ask the families of those who were brazenly slaughtered by a deranged individual if they would surrender their privacy to have their loved ones back. I think you know what the answer would be.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Steps to gun control."