A bill has been introduced in the House that is numbered HR45, “Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009”:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45.IH:

It is so-named because of the events mentioned in Section 2(a)

(6) on the afternoon of May 10, 2007, Blair Holt, a junior at Julian High School in Chicago, was killed on a public bus riding home from school when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and started shooting.

Here are the stated purposes of the bill:

(1) to protect the public against the unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with the unrecorded sale or transfer of qualifying firearms to criminals and youth;

(2) to ensure that owners of qualifying firearms are knowledgeable in the safe use, handling, and storage of those firearms;

(3) to restrict the availability of qualifying firearms to criminals, youth, and other persons prohibited by Federal law from receiving firearms; and

(4) to facilitate the tracing of qualifying firearms used in crime by Federal and State law enforcement agencies.

And it aims to restrict:

(i) any handgun; or

`(ii) any semiautomatic firearm that can accept any detachable ammunition feeding device;

It does exclude “antiques.” The most obvious question, to me, is whether the bill would have prevented the shooting in the first place. If it could, would it make the world more safe for others as well? According the Chicago Sun-Times (by way of PoliceOne.com):

CHICAGO, Ill.  A two-year dispute led one gang member to fire multiple gunshots at another gang member on a crowded bus last week, killing an honor student, law enforcement sources said Sunday.
Michael "Mario" Pace, 16, is charged with one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder in the Thursday shooting that claimed the life of Julian High School student Blair Holt, 16, who was not the intended target.
Facing identical charges is 15-year-old Kevin Jones, who sources said gave Pace the gun. Jones knew Pace wanted to use the weapon to try to kill someone Pace had argued with on an almost "daily basis," possibly over a girl, sources said.

[ABC Local](http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news&id=5295070) reports:

An angry Chicago Public Schools CEO offered this sobering thought Friday morning, that Blair Holt has become the 20th Chicago Public Schools student to die from gunfire in this school year.

They also mention that Ronald (Ron) Holt, Blair's father is a police officer:

As a long-time police officer, Ron Holt has seen the worst the streets can show. He says he and Blair’s mom, Annette Holt, taught their son courage and leadership and that he showed that Thursday when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire.

That was a show of courage, and it is definitely worthy of notice. One more quote from the Chicago Sun-Times should bring this back around to show why HR45 is now before Congress:

“They’re just children,” a frustrated Ronald Holt said of those charged with killing his son. “You wonder where it comes from. What causes a child to wantonly and blatantly hatch such an ill-conceived plan? To go out and do something like this? What makes them do it? Where is this coming from? What are the influences?” It is those questions that Holt, a Chicago Police gang-crimes officer, and Blair’s mother, Annette, a Chicago Fire Department captain, are vowing to work to answer by pushing for more youth-mentoring opportunities, better gun laws and other initiatives aimed at curbing juvenile violence.

These articles and Mr. Holt's background make a pretty good case, don't they?
The Chicago Sun-Times also has a [feedback blog](http://blogs.suntimes.com/neighborhoods/2007/05/gang_wars_kids_with_guns_in_th.html) where one of the discussion-starters included this:

Julian High student Blair Holt was a citizen casualty in a gang war. His alleged shooter, some say, was a victim too. Michael Pace, 16, has been described as a mixed up kid “with a short temper and a bad attitude” who grew up in poverty without a father and with easy access to “blunts” and guns that led him to his breaking point. Same goes for 15-year-old Kevin Jones, who police say gave Pace the gun to do the shooting.

Which would you blame more, the easily-accessible guns or the lack of a role model? The drugs or his father? Or do we all have some personal responsibility?
I was out for a walk with my sister in the country on a night roughly two years ago when one farmer's guard dogs decided that the road belonged to them. The closest that they got was about 3 feet -- just out of arms reach -- with their teeth bared. I did not have a gun, though one would have made me feel more confident in the outcome of a fight. Instead, I prepared to take the dogs on and hoped that if they made a move I could kill them before they did the same to me. Suppose that they had attacked me and I had died defending my sister. Could we outlaw dogs? Would we restrict access to them?
At the least, we should campaign against owning more than one. Or we could limit people to chihuahuas, since they make lots of noise and can't hurt you too badly. Their yaps would be enough to alert you that an intruder was nearby.
If we immediately made all dogs without special licenses in this country sterile, the problem of being attacked by them would solve itself since most would die out. Anybody who wanted to buy a dog needs to be registered and have their fingerprints and mental health records examined. If they are prevented from breeding without a special license, then there is accountability. That would have prevented my near-attack.
Please pardon the sarcasm. This is how I view HR45.
The problem with this bill is the same one that occurs in most bills. It does not prevent short-tempered people from doing something stupid with a gun that is already in their possession. And just like Mr. Holt was not able to constantly be around his son to protect him, we cannot expect any government agency to be around to prevent such things from happening.
Go read the bill for yourself. It deals with prosecuting the people who are responsible for these events after they happen. There are stricter background checks that are put in place, along with randomly-chosen verifications that will inconvenience the majority of legitimate gun owners. Since they are random, there is no guarantee of anything. Stolen guns would also be untraceable because the new "owner" is not going to register it. We all know gangs incriminate themselves by following these laws. This bill will even increase the demand for such untraceable guns.
It is hard to ask how this prevents the shooting in the first place without sounding stupid. The effectiveness of the bill becomes even more bizarre when you see that Michael Pace and the guy who gave him the gun, Kevin Jones, are both facing the same charges. Could you explain to me again what this bill is going to do, apart from antagonize people who are trying to defend themselves?
Let's discount the warm, fuzzy feeling we get for looking like we are doing something.