There seem to be a lot of drive by shootings in the USA, from what we hear on our side of the pond. A thought or two on how to stop this happening:
Allow anyone at all to carry handguns and cut sales tax on them. Price handloading equipment off the face of the earth so that ammunition can only be purchased from an RFD (registered firearms dealer). Make all ammunition, no matter what calibre, $5000 per round. This way, if someone gets pissed with you it will take them so long to save up for a round they will have forgotten all about it. Even if they have a long memory, by the time they can afford a round they will probably think "F**k it - he ain't worth it". In the case of drive by's, the chance of missing the prospective victim would be great enough that the idiots couldn't afford to shoot at you and would be forced to yell "BANG" and throw a rock instead. As a further bonus, anyone contemplating machine-gunning their wife to death would find it cheaper to divorce the bitch - therefore gaining further satisfaction in knowing that someone else will then have to suffer the way YOU did! In the case of robberies, why the hell rob a convenience store for a couple of hundred bucks when you may be forced to shoot the clerk, thereby putting yourself a few thousand out of pocket? None of the above would apply to members of this site though, we are all sensible and well adjusted geezers who would never do anything like that.
PS. Anyone got a saturday night special they want to lose - or a fuse for a WW2 grenade?

I believe that if a few parents would Jack Slap a few kids into shape it might help too. We have also made it illegal to punish our kids and now the children have no respect (or fear) of the parents.

I do love your idea except I need to be able to buy reloading components and firearms to protect myself and family from other parent's undisiplined off spring. (Our gene pool sure has gone to hell.)

The problem is that it is to hard for good people to have firearms. If more good people had guns who knew how to return fire, crime would go down. Bad people now actup when the cops are not around, one should only count on themselvs for protection , cops come to late ,after good people are hurt. Wake up America , before we have laws like England ---

The one and only correct answer to you questions is:

A law never affects anyone but the law abiding citizens. Look at your own country for the proof. The UK outlawed (for all practical purposes) firearms with the result of firearms related crimes - INCREASING. Why not, instead of adding yet another law, remove all the repetitious laws and enforce the base law? My current favorite example being the hate crime laws - what the heck makes it more vile/evil/bad to kill someone from group X than it is to kill Joe Average? Stop the plea bargining murder/rape/whatever down to jaywalking/speeding/petty theft; push for maximum sentencing; remove the health clubs from the prisons; let the average citizen fight back without fear of prosectution; and boot the idiots making more laws for the sake of making laws.

I thank you, gentlemen, for the reception of what is ostensibly a joke but is all too true in our 'modern' times. It is also illegal to slap kids over here now. My son is 26 and 6'1" tall, when I say "jump" all he says is "How high, Dad?" I didn't get that amount of respect (or fear, if you prefer it - but it works for me) over the negotiating table. My favourite saying to him is "Don't do that - it makes your ears red." He knows what I mean.
Grimel, you would never last over here as a politician mate - too much joined-up thinking!

Gentleman...I raised 5 children. 4 boys and one girl. They do not fear me and never did UNLESS they had screwed up. The most feared sound in my house was the belt coming out of the belt loops. Child abuse you say?? No...Not when your sons come to you in the garage and ask to have a spanking with the belt so they can have their weekend back that MOM took away from them. While they were groing up they had fun and still do pulling small pranks or teasing Ol' DAD. I still have a very good repore with my kids AND my grandchildren. I DO recieve respect with pride from my kids. I dearly hope you all get the same. And they stayed restricked for the weekend by the way...

Delboy,

I wouldn't last over here as a politician either. I don't do group non-thinking knee jerk waste my time pass a law to be "doing something" very well. I'd spend all my time introducing bills to eliminate repetitive laws.

At last count it takes a full size pickup to carry all the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations). Add to that the various executive orders, interpretations, acts, laws, subparts, subsections, state regs, county regs, and city regs. There isn't ONE person in the USA today that isn't commiting some felony/major mis-demeanor daily. Some of the lovely regs conflict with each other (not city conflicting with fed (which they do at times), but fed conflicting with fed). It's insane.