Democratic Sen. Marlon Kimpson has three horrible ideas on gun-control. I have four better ideas.

Here are his three horrible, no-good, very bad ideas.

First, Sen. Kimpson wants to ban assault-weapons (whatever that means). Second, he wants gun owners to register their guns with SLED. Third, he wants South Carolina to conduct its own background check because he thinks the feds are useless, I guess.

I understand that people want to "Do Something" in response to bad events, but this is just about the dumbest set of ideas he could come up with. First of all, all the people in Charleston were killed with a handgun. Is his proposed assault weapons ban going to ban the possession of handguns? If not, why not? So what would his ban accomplish? Nothing, that's what.

Second, he wants to have every single gun in South Carolina registered with SLED. Well, goooo-leee that's kind of ambitious, ain't it? By the way, that sounds like a gigantic database, which is going to have to be constantly updated. Every time a gun changes hands, someone moves, or anything. I mean, wow. Oh, and it's none of SLEDs damn business what guns I own.

Third, he wants South Carolina to conduct its own background check on (I presume) every single firearm transaction in South Carolina. Never mind that the federal government already does that. Never mind that South Carolina doesn't have the current ability to do that. I guess those are all just details for detail-guys, not big idea guys like the Senator.

This is just dumb. Is anyone in the Senate a grown-up?

You want some good ideas? Here are four that would actually help:

1.  How about working with gun-owners to promote safe gun storage? We could have a campaign on proper gun safety and storage. Think about it like DUI. We don't start banning types of cars or drinking in response to DUI. We promote why its important to have the right safety, and what the consequences are for making bad decisions.

2. How about providing a hot-line to call if a gun is stolen? Instead of telling SLED that they're now in charge tracking all guns in South Carolina, let's encourage gun owners to keep track of their own information on their guns, and then report it on a hotline if they are the victim of a gun theft. Same result, but now we aren't invading people's privacy, nor are we burdening SLED with the record-keeping requirement.  

3. Teach gun safety to children. You really want to stop children from gun accidents? Give them knowledge and teach them how to be safe. It's the same argument that people make for teaching sex-ed in school. Guess what, they're right. Teach kids how to be safe.

4. Get rid of gun-free zones. These are simply open invitations to mass-shooters. Right now, my kids go to daycare inside of a building that is guarded by armed security. I love that. However, I'm going to have to give that security up when they start going to elementary school. Let's give each school or school district the ability to make the decision to allow responsible administrators/teachers the ability to have a gun if they so choose. It could be something like the Armed Pilots Program that was put in place after 9/11.

All four of these ideas would be easy to implement, not cost very much, receive overwhelming support, and...oh yeah...would actually freakin' help solve the problem of gun violence.