United Liberty
Why gun owners see background checks as registration
Thu, 02/21/2013 - 4:05pm | posted by Tom Knighton
There’s a lot of back and forth on the internet right now. Guns tend to get folks riled up pretty well. Gun rights advocates are screaming to the top of their lungs about universal gun registration, while gun grabbers are yelling that it’s about keeping guns out of the wrong hands.
Well folks, you may not realize it, but the gun rights advocates are actually right on this one.
Sure, no one who supports universal background checks is saying registration. In fact, they honestly believe they’re avoiding gun registration. Unfortunately, there’s a reason why gun rights advocates don’t believe them.
First, one must understand the entire process of purchasing a gun through a licensed dealer. The background check is only part of the process. The rest involves paperwork that also registers information about the weapon purchased. These records aren’t shredded after a certain period of time. No, the dealer is required to hold onto these records indefinitely.
By forcing all gun sales to go through Federal Firearms License holders, you force all weapons to have paperwork filed on each and every firearm purchase. That is a form of de facto registration.
Now, this isn’t some gun armeggedon or anything. Most guns would still transfer just as they always have (Obama’s figure that as many as 40 percent of all sales don’t go through the background check is complete bull), but some will now have to go through a third party. So what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that it’s just a small step to take all of those records and record them into a central database. Maybe in the form of a computerized system that makes life easier for everyone. The Feds will even input historical data for the gun dealers. Of course, the most feasible way to do that is a web based application. That would require a central database.
Yeah, that last part is just some spitballing on my part, but it’s a very small step. However, the reality is that a universal background check system would require every legal purchase of a firearm to be recorded. If that’s not registration, then what is?
The kicker is that the bad people you want to stop? It won’t stop them at all. Either they will use other weapons (ranging from bombs to knives), or they will get their guns through illegal channels. After all, that’s where most criminals get them these days, and that’s without all of the other roadblocks the government is currently trying to throw in their way.
Some will argue that just because it won’t stop most of these folks, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. However, my question is why should we restrict the rights of the law abiding when even proponents of the measure admit that it’s unlikely to really accomplish anything? The idea of “we have to do something” laws bother the hell out of me, especially when it’s “we have to do something at any cost” like these ideas tend to be.
Folks, registering guns won’t stop the bad people. It will turn a lot of good people into criminals because they simply won’t take roll over and register something because of what others have done. It’s past time to abandon these hairbrained schemes and realize that losing freedoms because of a handful of madmen is no solution.
Although I am against any new gun laws and think most of the ones we already have should be eliminated, I am not sure that I fully understand the argument here.
If universal background checks were to be mandated, and if the checks had to be made by a FFL, would the checks – not firearm transfers – have to be permanently recorded? If they were, that is still not evidence that a transfer took place. If all transfers were required to go through an FFL, that would be defacto registration, yes.
The only way to make sure background checks are taking place is to require all transfers to go through a FFL.
That’s not true (it also doesn’t make it a good idea). There are plenty of ways to do that if you actually wanted to. For instance you could require a license for all gun sales. You go through a background check to get the license, then buy as many guns as you want without having to file paperwork each time. This is what already goes on at most gunshows, though you wouldn’t know it form all of the hard hitting gunshow coverage in the news these days…
But that’s not what anyone is talking about. They’re talking about a background check for each purchase. The only mechanism for that currently is by routing it through FFL holders.
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What business is it of theirs how many and what kind of guns I have. Just another Big Gov’t ploy to know your business.
I keep hearing universal background checks is not gun regustration. Let us suppose we have universal checks in place. I sell my 1979 browning to a guy named Bob. How do you enforce background checks without knowing who owned that gun at the time the law went into effect?
Its simple, without registration of all guns right at the law’s start any privately held gun can be practically sold over and over without any background checks. Why? There were no background checks required other than the original owner for pre -law guns. Without registration the “real” current owner is whoever is in possession. The post law guns are easy to get around too unless registration is required. Just have had a successful NICS check after the gun’s date of mfg. the system will show a check, and unless there is registration who is going to pour through paperwork to see if the FFL sold you that gun? You can get big stores to run the check and then change your mind. For $10 you are good for the year.
The law can only be enforced with registration. Who is most affected? If a criminal is caught and charged, a background check violation is a misdemeanor - if he is caught using a gun to commit a crime - that’s the least of his worries. So what happens? Only law abiding citizens will comply out of fear. Criminals will take the misdemeanor if they are caught.
So, what is the net effect? No impact on risk of another Aurora. That young man was smart enough to build explosives. My guess is he will get around the background check.
Of course this means pre-law guns will be highly desired by criminals and crime may increase as they search them out.
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