If this idea sounds radical and needlessly trolling to you, it should. But this is not some sort of straw man. It is literally a popular position in contemporary American politics among those on the right. [1]

For seatbelts we had on one side of the ledger preventable deaths, injuries, and if we're being callous, the economic drain that results from that. We also knew from looking at other countries that had these problems, that seatbelt laws massively reduce those negatives. On the other side we had, "But I don't wanna."

When it comes to mass shootings in America, we've had 427 as of yesterday, the 218th day of 2023.[0] That's almost two a day. The United States is literally the only country where this happens. We know the solutions. We can look at how Australia reacted when they had a kindergarten murdered in 1996, and how they haven't had a similar instance since. When America had a kindergarten murdered in a similar way, the government shrugged it off, and even talking about reform was shouted down, because of "freedom".

That's what I'm talking about. So if putting it out in such straightforward terms makes you uncomfortable, it should, because it's literally people dying and a majority of Americans wanting the dying to stop, versus a small number saying, "I don't care. I don't wanna. Your dead kid is the price I'm willing to pay to keep my hobby."

[0] https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-half-gop-accept-mass-shootin...