The Real Danger of a National Gun Registry

By Ready to Fire News On Nov 12, 2018

With a reported increase in gun violence over recent years, whether real or perceived with more access to national media and news reporting, there seems to be a renewal of the debate about how to make the country safer.

From a neutral viewpoint, it seems the loudest voices are heard. Neither is true, but extremists on the one side say the other wants to abolish guns altogether, while extremists on the other side of the debate presume to suggest responsible gun owners don’t care about senseless shootings. An honest evaluation shows each statement to be ridiculous, but then comes the seemingly mid-line argument for a gun registry as a solution.

It doesn’t take a long debate to realize how a gun registry won’t solve any problems, but only create a nuisance for people who do enjoy gun ownership. The first glaring question is, how is this registry going to be funded? There are only two ways to pay for it, either divert funds from more important resources or raising taxes. A specific gun tax would violate the 2nd Amendment rights of the U.S. Citizen, so tax funding would have to be across the board.

There is another little known problem with a registry, which is that the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional on 5th Amendment grounds. Essentially, a registry would require criminals to testify against themselves by reporting their ownership of a gun. Such a statement might sound confusing as most legal jargon does to the layman, but it essentially recognizes what responsible gun owners already know. Criminals aren’t going to register their illegal guns, a registry would only place an undue burden on people who do and should own a firearm.

There are some counter arguments in support of a gun registry, most notably, that it would prevent straw purchases from arriving in a criminal’s hands as the gun is registered to the original buyer who is responsible for it. The argument doesn’t hold water. It potentially allows for the victim of theft to be criminally charged, which is a concept not only contrary to United States law, but is actually offensive. Imagine hosting a family gathering, and the following day a distant relative is arrested for a gun crime. It turns out that he stole one of your guns. In an ideal world, that wouldn’t happen, but being what the court calls a “reasonable person” you can’t be held responsible that a cousin snuck into your locked office and took a gun from your desk.

The fact is, if there was a simple solution to prevent gun violence, it would be incorporated into law. It just isn’t easy, as criminals are going to find ways to get guns. Disrupting the rights of responsible gun owners won’t change that fact, but responsible gun owners who carry according to the law might prevent the criminal from using the gun in a malevolent way.

~ Ready to Fire News