I agree with the sentiment that some reasonable regulations are a good idea. I've long been a fan of the Czech Republic gun culture. Where one can still obtain handguns, shotguns, AR15's, etc..., and still obtain a CCW permit through a reasonable procedure (roughly the same percentage of their population as CCW permits compared to us 2-3%). However, their murder rate is only 0.7 (one of the lowest in Europe).
However, I think I'd disagree with your gun/car example.
The only thing that makes obtaining a car more difficult is having to deal with the awful car dealership cartel
Auto accidents account for over 35,000 deaths and over 3.5 million injuries every year and the only requirement in order to be able to get out on the road is passing a test that most 16 year olds can pass on their first try.
Maybe that's the strategy to go with...start making gun dealerships like car dealerships.
You spend 4 hours down at "Bill Simmons Glock" haggling over price while they try to get you to buy an extended barrel warranty and get you to pay and extra $49 for undercoating on the trigger assembly.
Kidding aside, I think the Czech Republic model is the way to go for the US and I'm disappointed that it never gets brought up in national discussions. You have the Ted Nugents on one side that imply that any restriction at all is a slippery slope to tyranny, and many on the other side insisting that we should try to mimic UK/Aus which doesn't translate well because those countries didn't have the same kind of gun culture we have (not to mention, their gun legislation didn't really do anything...their murder rate was just as low before their gun restrictions). If you have a gun culture (which we do), it's better to evaluate other countries that also have a gun culture that have successfully made it safe while still preserving expansive gun rights for their citizens (which the Czech Republic has).
