The gun-control debate lacks focus.­ That’s a problem because it’s a multi-layered issue that no one piece of legislation, no matter how big, can solve.­ It involves mental illness, an entertainment culture that supports violence, a debate about which guns are allowed and more.

There are so many problems outside of simply trying to restrict gun ownership that the argument that no gun-control legislation would significantly reduce gun deaths in this country is popular on the airways right now.

Nevertheless, the nation needs to find a balance between respecting privacy and the right to bear arms with protecting potential victims of gun violence. ­ That’s why the first target for reform needs to be bringing law enforcement, specifically the agency of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, into this century with a comprehensive and detailed database of gun sales and ownership.

The first thing I want to make clear is that the argument over a database is not about the government taking everyone’s guns and leaving the populace vulnerable to tyranny.­ It’s been said too many times, and it’s such an extreme­ to throw into an argument that it makes real debate almost impossible.­ What is the counter to that argument in a reasonable conversation? If the government does try to do that, I will be the first to volunteer to find a horse and ride through Fresno yelling, “The British are coming!”

This debate is really about information and how much access law enforcement should have.

Since 1997, there have been laws in place to forbid the creation of an electronic database of gun owners.­ Instead, gun sale records are kept at thousands of separate locations with no central electronic system to quickly access information.

That is a problem because the ATF, which is supposed to enforce gun laws, employs only 5,000 people, which is about the same number it had a decade ago. Only about half are special agents tasked with conducting investigations.­ This is a big country with a lot of guns for about 2,500 people to do their job.

According to ATF reports, in 2010 there were 5,459,240 new firearms manufactured in the United States, nearly all (95 percent) stayed in the U.S. market.­ There were also an additional 3,252,404 firearms imported to the U.S. that year.­ That’s about 8.5 million new guns for the ATF to keep track of in one year with no central electronic database to help track what kind of people have access to those weapons. Not to mention many more restrictions on the ATF that to describe in detail would turn this into a book.

Responsible gun owners need to ask each other some serious questions.­ Is the fear of tyranny or government misuse so great that valuable tools that should be available to law enforcement are denied?

Adam Winkler, author of “Gun Fight: The Battle Over The Right to Bear Arms in America,” was quoted in an ABC News article in December that the man who shot Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six other people in Arizona “was kicked out of school because he was thought to be unfit, he was rejected from joining the military. … But there was no way for those institutions to report to the federal government and put him on a prohibited purchasers list.”

How much information this database has access to and the intensity of background checks will be a huge debate.­ Let’s start that discussion by taking the handcuffs off the ATF.­ I recommend to everyone who read this to carefully research the restrictions on that agency and determine for themselves whether they have what they need to do the job.