NY Times Op-Ed Calls for ‘Comprehensive Database of All Gun Owners’

2nd Amendment – R2KBA Authors Current Events S.H. Blannelberry This Week
The New York Times office building in New York.  (Photo: Wikipedia)

The New York Times office building in New York. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The media so often gets it wrong on guns that you almost want to stick your fingers in your ears and go, “Blah, blah, blah,” to block out the misinformation and disinformation that it continues to publish. A recent example of really vexing pontification on the Second Amendment comes from a New York Times op-ed, titled, “Effective Firearms Regulations Is Constitutional,” that argues a comprehensive database of all gun owners and their firearms is not only constitutional but will “put a serious crimp in gun theft, gun crime and gunrunning.”

After lamenting the current federal background check system that doesn’t criminalize private transfers or sales, the authors of the piece Abner J. Mikva, a former member of Congress, federal judge and counsel to President Bill Clinton, and Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor of law at Chapman University in Orange, CA, imagine what the ideal background check system would look like.

“A more effective system would require everyone who owns or acquires a gun to register it,” they write. “Gun owners would also need a license that could be obtained by demonstrating they can use a gun responsibly, and passing a background check.”

“Registration records would create a comprehensive database of all guns and their owners,” the two men continued. “During a criminal investigation, when a gun was recovered from a person who was not its registered owner, that person would face serious penalties. But so, too, would the registered owner if he had failed to report that the weapon was no longer in his possession.”

I know what you’re thinking, gun registration paves the way for gun confiscation. History has certainly shown that to be true. But what I’m interested in discussing, at least at first, is not the eventual outcome of the proposal for a comprehensive database but how these two men arrived at this conclusion in the first place (I can’t tell if they’re true anti-gunners or if they have just been sold, hook-line-sinker, the gun-control lies).

See, I believe that so many people support gun registration because they start by asking the wrong question, which is, how do we better control, limit and/or restrict gun ownership? The goal is to, as they so often say, reduce gun violence. But unilaterally infringing on the Second Amendment often does very little to impact gun-related violence. We see this in places like Chicago, D.C., where despite very draconian policies on gun ownership the violence is out of control.

At its core, gun control measures like a gun registry are really selling people false hope. It’s alluring because it gives one an identifiable solution (that’s not really a solution at all) to a complex problem. People, who may be unbiased on the gun issue, are easily sold on what they can readily apprehend. So, for example, they buy into the gun-grabber’s reasoning that if we just pass universal background checks or if we just create a gun registry or if we just mandate micro-stamping or if we just ban this black rifle or ban this standard-capacity magazine that we’ll keep the bad guys from killing innocents. But these ideas never have the impact that gun-control advocates claim they will have. And when they fail to work, gun-grabbers perversely use their ineffectiveness as a justification for more proposals to restrict, limit and/or control gun ownership. For anti-gunners, the problem is never that gun control doesn’t work, it’s that we never have enough of it.

I can go one by one and briefly explain how all of the aforementioned proposals have failed to achieve their desired result. Universal background checks exist in California, Colorado and plenty of other states, but criminals still have guns. Canada recently repealed its gun registry system. Why? It was ineffective and costly. Micro-stamping requirements have fell by the wayside in various states because it’s been proven to be easily circumvented. The Clinton-era ban on black rifles expired in 2004, the result, crime continued to decrease in the wake of its expiration proving it had no effect on crime rates.

Given these lackluster results, why are gun control advocates still pushing these failed policies? Well, for many anti-gunners the end game isn’t really about background checks or gun registration, it’s about total civil disarmament. They won’t stop until we go the way of Europe. And that’s really what they’re getting at. But since it’s not politically feasible to dismantle the 2A in one fell swoop, they have to chip away at it incrementally.

More fundamentally, though, gun control fails for the same reasons that the War on Drugs failed and Prohibition failed. It’s a supply-side approach. To really take a bite out of gun-related violence, we need to address the demand for crime guns. Therefore, the right question to ask ourselves is not concerned with putting more onerous restrictions on gun ownership, but rather, how do we decrease the criminal demand for firearms? And to really reduce the criminal demand for firearms, we have to create a society that produces fewer criminals. How do we do that?

It’s not an easy question to answer because there is no simple solution. We’re basically talking about overhauling the culture and socio-economics of high-crime neighborhoods, which is a huge undertaking that requires a lot of time, money and manpower. While a clear-cut solution remains elusive, we know that part of it has to involve giving young people a quality education and creating job opportunities. If we educate people and we put them to work, chances are they’re not going to resort to crime.

The jokers who wrote the NY Times editorial don’t seem to understand this point, or if they understand it, they don’t care to mention it. Instead, they go on to argue the benefits of national registry, which they wrongly contend is constitutional.

“A comprehensive system of background checks and registration would not prevent law-abiding people from obtaining guns for purposes of lawful self-defense,” they write. “It would be consistent with both the Heller decision and the Second Amendment’s acknowledgment that those who keep and bear arms should be ‘well regulated.’”

“An efficient system could instantly determine whether a proposed firearms purchase was legal, and then register the sale,” they add. “It need not impose any meaningful burden on the right to keep and bear arms. This system would, however, put a serious crimp in gun theft, gun crime and gunrunning. There is nothing unconstitutional about that.”

Shall not be infringed... means something. (Photo: TheBlaze.com)

Shall not be infringed… means something. (Photo: TheBlaze.com)

First off, firearm sales that are conducted by an FFL are already recorded. But those records — the form 4473s — aren’t submitted to the government unless the FFL goes out of business or unless the ATF is conducting an audit or an investigation. The point is we don’t need a registry. We don’t need to turn over this sensitive information to the government. It’s none of the government’s business who owns a firearm.

Additionally, the founders and framers idea of “well-regulated” had nothing to do with government restrictions on gun ownership (hence the very clear declaration, “Shall Not Be Infringed,” at the end of the 2A) or the government’s ability to monitor gun owners, but instead had to do with a militia of civilians being well-trained and self-sufficient. The 2A’s main purpose is to protect a free State from government tyranny! It wouldn’t make any sense at all for citizens to allow the government to meddle with the very right that protects them from — the government! The gross misreading by these NY Times imbeciles that government is supposed to regulate the Second Amendment is like suggesting a burglar ought to have the security code to one’s home alarm system. It’s ridiculous.

Gun registration, therefore, isn’t Constitutional, nor is it an effective crime-fighting tool. As we saw in Canada, they disbanded their registry because it was costly and ineffective. Criminals, they realized, never registered their firearms. Surprise! Surprise! Instead, what happened was only the law-abiding complied with the registration requirement. It was a pointless endeavor.

Yet, here the writers of that op-ed contend that it is in our best interest to try the same failed policy, absent of proof that it would be effective and in the face of proof that shows it would ineffective (the majority of criminals, it turns out, use straw purchasers, buy firearms on the black market, steal firearms from law-abiding gun owners, borrow them from fellow criminals, basically, obtain firearms through illegal means). Why? Well to summarize, either (a) anti-gunners hoodwinked them into believing that it would reduce gun violence or (b) as anti-gunners themselves, they know it’s another brick in the wall to total civil disarmament.

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  • sammy davis March 5, 2016, 3:45 pm

    Yeah,like i want a criminal to be able to look up our names/addresses so they can scope out and try and steal our weapons….
    NOT.

  • Tom Horn March 4, 2016, 7:08 pm

    Illinois has long kept an unconstitutional list of firearms owners. They call it the Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) System. To even to touch a firearm in a store, or purchase ammo you must have a FOID card. Folks were waiting over 6 months for the privilege to get their FOID card in 2013. Forget about exercising your 2A Rights in Illinois, if a spouse or girlfriend ever accused you of battery.

    That is why Chicago is so, safe from gun violence. Makes sense doesn’t it? Is this the model the liberals are basing their, “You’ll be safer if we have a list,” campaign on?

    If you are on your states CCW permit holder list, you are on another unconstitutional database. We have already compromised our 2A rights.

  • Richard HH March 4, 2016, 5:57 pm

    Forget that !!!
    I recommend a public database of all persons in each state arrested for firearms violations. You know, Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, Illegal Use of a Weapon, Armed Robbery, Attempted Murder. That kind of database makes sense to me but will never happen

    • Ron Winship March 4, 2016, 9:53 pm

      No registration, a very simple solution: Mandatory Drug Testing for every new Firearm purchase or transfer. Make
      every sale or transfer go through a Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer who administers a Litmus paper Drug Test which
      they personally attest to…..that it was administered to the person submitting application for sale.

  • Tom Horn March 4, 2016, 5:24 pm

    Illinois has long kept an unconstitutional list of firearms owners. They call it the Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) System. To even to touch a firearm in a store, or purchase ammo you must have a FOID card. Folks were waiting over 6 months for the privilege to get their FOID card in 2013. Forget about exercising your 2A Rights in Illinois, if a spouse or girlfriend ever accused you of battery.

    That is why Chicago is so, safe from gun violence. Makes since doesn’t it? Is this the model the liberals are basing their, “You’ll be safer if we have a list,” campaign on?

    If you are on your states CCW permit holder list, you are on another unconstitutional database. We have already compromised our 2A rights.

  • oldfuzz695 March 4, 2016, 4:48 pm

    I will not register anything with the oppressive, corrupt Federal Government beyond the I.R.S. which should be closed. I will not allow any dependent to register for the Draft if it is ever brought back. In the Vietnam era, college boys were deferred while the lower middle class and the poor fought and sacrificed over 58,000 lives to a war the corrupt, (Democrat) politicians would not let them win. The Feds can kiss my little sister’s black cat’s ass!

  • furball March 4, 2016, 2:17 pm

    you know as a gun owner i would not have a real problem just as long as the media “reporters” and the politicians all have the same information published too. however if they don’t want that then i think it is them who have something to hide. fair play is fair to all not just gun owners.

  • hey March 4, 2016, 1:14 pm

    The type of light sentencing curption is what we need to be fighting against, we need to start another organization that will force the government to have (REAL WORLD LAWS) to hold criminals, especially government officials accountable. This is why our country is a circus show, with cruption on all levels, especially the violent outburst drug approving FDA, also the incarnation rate that is 6 times higher per GOP than the second worst country in world. If we did this the government and global weathly elite will have a hard time finding the excuse to infringe on the second amendment and prey upon the innocent.

  • Larry March 4, 2016, 11:42 am

    I would like to see a “comprehensive database of all leftist journalists”. After all, they are much more dangerous to the wellbeing of the Union than lawful gun owners.

  • Tommy Barrios March 4, 2016, 11:31 am

    How a “comprehensive database” of ALL Communist Progressive Liberal Scum!
    How a “comprehensive database” of ALL Black Trash Thugs and Ghetto Goobers!
    How a “comprehensive database” of ALL Jackanapes Journalists that write ASININE ARTICLES!
    Can I gets a big AMEN!

    • jay Warren Clark March 4, 2016, 2:00 pm

      To violate the civil rights of another in the interests of protecting civil rights does not demonstrate a genuine grasp of the Constitution at all.
      Neither is it funny, especially since it can confuse.
      For example Communism is a set of idea and insofar is protected under the First Amendment which basically protects a man’s Conscience, i.e., what he believes to be true, good, and useful to he and his neighbors.
      So, you are free to suggest such things but it just makes you look like a stupid Red Neck and insofar weakens instead of strengthening the Constitution and the nation it defines. JWC

  • 2War Abn Vet March 4, 2016, 11:11 am

    If such a “database” worked as well as other government programs; it would be nothing more than an expensive, useless, ineffective boondoggle.

    • John Swertner July 2, 2016, 6:20 am

      Look back and see how registering and subsequent confiscation of firearms worked for the pre war Germans, unarmed you no longer pose any problem for the politicians running the govt. They will impose restrictions on you at will with absolutely no fear of reprisal. THE TIME IS NOW to stsnd up for your rights before that ability is stripped from you for good America

  • Bill Graves March 4, 2016, 10:11 am

    Bloomberg is already accomplishing gun registration at the state level with his legislative antics. It has happened here in Washington State. Sure, the Feds aren’t keeping records, but who is to say the various states aren’t doing it? Incidentally, the Feds are doing ALOT of things they aren’t SUPPOSED to be doing, which are supposedly illegal, but then everything is open to someones interpretation of the law. Gee, who would have thought that some appointed bureaucrat could interpret law just like an appellate court judge??

  • Martin fee March 4, 2016, 10:01 am

    There is a reason the NY Times is sold on the same shelf now with the Weekly World News and National Inquirer.
    Like the Clinton News Network , and the Mandatory Socialist National Broadcast Company they no longer concern themselves with reporting the news, they create news and report what their bosses want them to report

  • trumpslittlehands March 4, 2016, 9:16 am

    Hey guys, this Data base thing is an awesome idea! I mean, Screw privacy, privacy is an antiquated concept. we must not have the ability to keep secrets from each other…for our own safety. Besides, who doesn’t love a good list of private tidbits about others, am I right?
    I have a few ideas for some other data bases we should keep, just so we know who is doing what and has what …just to keep us all informed… For example:
    A data base of everyone who’s ever been divorced
    A data base on people who have had an abortion…
    A data base on Politicians noting how much they have in their personal accounts, how much they spend monthly and on what, and their home addresses and phone numbers.
    A data base on people who own cars or trucks that get under a certain gas mileage, say under 25 MPG ..so we can tell who is producing more pollution and using the most gas.
    A data base on big businesses who have employees with criminal records, ANY criminal records.
    A data base on Politicians who are related to either by birth or marriage, to anyone with a criminal record or any sort of mental illness, who they are, where they are and what they have or have done time for.

    • Phil March 4, 2016, 4:45 pm

      +1
      Best idea I’ve heard all day! Lmfao!

    • John Swertner July 2, 2016, 6:25 am

      Awesome also like a li s t of politicians related to companies holding lucrative govt contracts. .this is why politicians got involved in unions they dont give a s damn about workers its their personnel slush fund..which they pushed out the mob and they now run the unions in the same manner

  • Chad J. March 4, 2016, 8:51 am

    The NY Times needs to change its motto from “All the news that’s fit to print” to “Official Voice of the Lunatic Anti-Gun Fringe”. These are the same folks that foam at the mouth at the thought of requiring ID at the polling places, denying drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens, and barring “refugees” from places that have proven to be breeding grounds for terrorists, but they treat ALL gun owners as potential criminals. And this when the Supreme Court has ruled that CRIMINALS are not required to register their guns because doing so would force them to surrender their 5th Amendment Right against self-incrimination!!! World Class Hypocrites.

  • Rob D March 4, 2016, 7:36 am

    Isn’t it funny that all the city’s that pretty much cannot control their crime, are always the ones that are crying about getting the law abiding citizens disarmed? Look at Chicago (Where I live an hour away from) with some of the toughest gun control is practically the murder capital of the US? You never see the politicians in front of the microphone saying “We are going to concentrate our effort at controlling gangs, stepping up our crime prevention in high crime areas, and are not going to keep putting hard core criminals right back in the streets!”. I never seem to hear any common sense things like this ever. It’s pretty obvious the next thing they will want is gun confiscation, then watch the crime rate really go up. Then it’s on to their next stupid agenda….

  • fee1776 March 4, 2016, 7:34 am

    LOL. 2A must be tested, licencsed and registered. But when it comes to voter ID, liberals say it is onerous and no need for it. When it comes to illegal immigration, let them come in with little or no background check for criminal record or diseases. If cities discover their illegal status, who care about the law. Gunowners better know where their guns are at all times, and all activities with them are enforced to the full extent of the law. And there is a two tiers of enforcement. If I got caught in a state that outlaws high capacity mags, it is a charge and sentence per illegal magazine, but if you are a TV anchorman brandishing a 30 round AR-15 magazine on TV in Wash DC (where it is illegal to have one), no prosecution because he belongs to a media elite.

  • Joseph March 4, 2016, 6:42 am

    We already have gun control here, it’s all about controlling the possession of fully automatic firearms.
    We already have gun registration here, it’s all about that federal background check prior to the purchase of the firearm.
    The confiscation part will be a little tricky as they are having problems getting those pesky felons to go through the hoops…

  • JGTinFL March 4, 2016, 6:02 am

    What we need is a microchip embedded deep in each person’s brain at birth that would allow us to track that person’s whereabouts each instant of his or her life. The chip could also transmit details on what a person says during life. That way we can check if somebody yelled “Fire” at an inappropriate time. A chip embedded in every firearm would allow us to track them, and in every bullet would give us even more information. At the end of the day how could anyone object to common sense laws to use technology to protect society against abuses of the First and Second Amendments?

    Maybe I should not submit the above comment. It might give some columnists or politicians ideas.

  • Roger March 4, 2016, 4:54 am

    Opinion columns are like ass holes. Everyone has one. Guns are bought from FFL’s and a Federal form 4473 is filled out. These records are kept forever by the Federal Government already and put on a computer database for law enforcement.

    • Joe McHugh March 4, 2016, 7:25 am

      Roger, the gun dealers are only required to keep those Federal form no. 4473’s for 20-years, not forever. The Federal Government is not supposed to keep any information about a particular gun sale more than 90 days.

      Now let’s return to the reality of life. What would prevent the government from doing audits on EVERY gun dealer in the United States? And how would the public know that such information would not be captured and stored in a government database? Hint, think about the words “nothing” and “hoodwinked”. The only way the anti-gun proponents could achieve their devious plans to make the Second Amendment irrelevant would be for the people to have total trust in the government leaders.

      Now let’s see a show of hands of the citizens who trust the government leaders in all things, especially their pledge to honor the Bill of Rights. Oh put your hand down obama!

      All of this controversy is pointless. The rumor that there are over 300 million firearms in private hands is a gross exaggeration.
      I’m almost sure that there are no more than two dozen privately owned long guns in the United States. I challenge any of the readers to search their homes for rifles and shotguns. Call me crazy but I’m willing to bet that no more than 10 people will turn up such “evil” devices.

      Think about it, if the government doesn’t know who might have guns, it can’t confiscate them. For example, I don’t own a firearm. You believe me don’t you? It doesn’t matter what our “trusted” leaders suspect, it only matters if you register your rifle or shotgun.

      • Joseph March 4, 2016, 8:43 am

        Anybody foolish enough to believe those gun purchase background checks are truncated after 90 days by big brother hasn’t a clue as to what our fearless leaders store on the big computer.

      • BigJim&TheTwins March 4, 2016, 6:33 pm

        As of July 2004, approved purchaser information is no longer kept for ninety days but is instead destroyed within twenty-four hours of the official NICS response to the dealer. The requirement that approved purchaser information be destroyed within twenty-four hours has been included in the appropriations bills funding the Department of Justice (which includes ATF and the FBI) every year since 2004. Each of these acts contains additional provisions which restrict disclosure of data obtained by ATF via crime gun traces.

        The FBI maintains indefinitely the records of prospective purchasers whose applications are denied.

        FFLs are required to maintain records of the acquisition and sale of firearms indefinitely. The dealer is required to retain Form 4473, regardless of whether the transaction is approved or denied or whether the firearm is actually transferred. When a firearms business is discontinued, these records are delivered to the successor or, if none exists, to the Attorney General.

        With very limited exceptions, records of firearm sales are not maintained at the federal level. The National Firearms Act Branch of ATF does maintain a limited registry of machine guns, short-barreled shotguns or rifles, and silencers, known as the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record

      • BetterInfo March 4, 2016, 6:49 pm

        Title 27: Alcohol, Tobacco Products, and Firearms

        CHAPTER II: BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS, AND EXPLOSIVES, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

        SUBCHAPTER B: FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION

        PART 478: COMMERCE IN FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION

        Subpart H: Records

        478.129 – Record retention.

        (a) Records prior to Act. Licensed importers and licensed manufacturers may dispose of records of sale or other disposition of firearms prior to December 16, 1968. Licensed dealers and licensed collectors may dispose of all records of firearms transactions that occurred prior to December 16, 1968.

        (b) Firearms transaction record. Licensees shall retain each Form 4473 and Form 4473(LV) for a period of not less than 20 years after the date of sale or disposition. Where a licensee has initiated a NICS check for a proposed firearms transaction, but the sale, delivery, or transfer of the firearm is not made, the licensee shall record any transaction number on the Form 4473, and retain the Form 4473 for a period of not less than 5 years after the date of the NICS inquiry. Forms 4473 shall be retained in the licensee’s records as provided in ? 478.124(b): Provided, That Forms 4473 with respect to which a sale, delivery or transfer did not take place shall be separately retained in alphabetical (by name of transferee) or chronological (by date of transferee’s certification) order.

      • Mahatma Muhjesbude March 4, 2016, 7:01 pm

        Yup, you’re right on, Joe, Except for the fact that certain ‘black’ agencies have been preparing extensively exactly for that type of ‘citizen disobedience’ for a few years now. And of course you’ve probably never been properly ‘interrogated’ by an ‘experienced’ team of special agents? Otherwise you wouldn’t say ANYthing. Because Your smugness would never work if you had a family. Put another way, I could probably make a six figure living adding that as another wager to the one that i can find out exactly what anyone bought on a 4473 in 15 minutes with just an ‘extended’ name check and another phone call or visit to the FFL dealer.

        So I’m telling you, after a special U. S. Federal ‘Gun Police’ –much much more ‘effective’ than the Canuck boys– comes a knock knock knocking…and after about 15 minutes with one of your family members in another room, With nothing more than a friendly ‘chat’, I’ll know all about any guns you really ‘have’, but simply might not have remembered when we first asked. Of course it goes both ways. It might take a little longer with you, but after i just tell you a few things based on the new administrative enactment that your due process is now GONE GIRL, “for the safety and emergency security of a nation under Domestic Terrorism”,…

        …You’ll shit out your mouth exactly everything you have, faster than a catfish with diarrhea, and even volunteer go get your guns for them and offer to carry them out to their vehicles instead of having them bring all their ‘equipment’ in to tear up your home searching. And also preventing the cash sniffing dogs from finding your stash.

        And don’t think they’ll be satisfied with you just ‘sacrificing’ a couple shitty sks’s or old pos Saturday night Specials. Everybody will be required to take the new ‘polygraph’ tests given quickly on location just to make sure they were telling the WHOLE truth. And nothing BUT the truth.

        So called ‘Civil Disobedience’ won’t work anymore. You saw what happened when seriously balled up protesters tried it recently in Oregon. One of them wound up dead because they ‘thought’ he was reaching for his gun. And the rest of them are facing enough prison time and lawyer expenses to fuck them up for the rest of their lives! What that really was didn’t really the news. It was a pointed warning that they’d never let ANY form of nascent Jeffersonian Revolution EVER even get started anymore.

        Our only chance is to beat them at their own game NOW, before it really is too late. Ballots instead of Bullets. . Repeal and ban ALL gun laws. Repeat, ALL of them! Then make it illegal to even attempt to submit any Bills to make any more un-Constitutional acts of treason against the 2nd/A.

        • Joe McHugh March 4, 2016, 8:37 pm

          Muhatma Muhjesbude, Au contraire, mon ami. You seem to think that the jack-booted thugs of the Federal Government have the upper hand just because they use the law to abuse the rights of the people. Well, I’m here to say that they don’t.

          OK, suppose a citizen wants to buy a firearm, any firearm. And suppose that he or she knows another citizen that is also disposed to do so. A quick discussion and off to the gun dealer store, where each one purchases the gun that the other really wants. Out to the parking lot and after adjusting for any price difference, each goes home with the gun the other one “officially” purchased.

          Now let’s visit the law considerations. The nice person at the NICS Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia verified that each of the customers was a competent, law-abiding adult citizen that had the Second Amendment right to buy any gun he or she wanted. The after-sale gun transaction between the two citizens, does not require that a Federal form #4473 be recorded, or require another approval of the NICS people.

          Lie detector tests? The last time I looked, such tests were voluntary and involved the individual’s Fifth Amendment rights.

          Now for a possible visit by the jack-booted thugs from one of the alphabet soup agencies. You simply tell them that you sold your gun to another person and that you did not record the name and other information about that person. The simple servants of the government only know what happened at the gun dealer’s store, they lose all track of firearms after an individual walks out the gun dealer’s store.

          Mahatma Muhjesbude, I maintain that ALL long firearms be acquired in this manner. I also suggest that any firearm that an individual owns, be stored in a manner that could not be detected with a sensitive metal detector. By the way, there are companies that offer large plastic barrels that can be sealed in a watertight manner and buried in remote places. Rumor has it that the upper peninsula of Michigan has so much buried steel that the compasses are rendered inaccurate. However, I am more familiar with the Andirondack wilderness here in New York State.

          Oh, did I say that I don’t own a gun? That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. Let the authorities prove that I have a firearm.

          But what are we talking about here? If the authorities start a confiscation program, we will already be in deep trouble as a society. The last thing the jack-booted thugs want to encounter is organized resistance to government abuse. Such abuse will be all it takes to create an all out upheaval. That’s when it will be “Katie bar the door!” time.

  • Michael McNamara March 4, 2016, 4:09 am

    Registering those that exercise their second amendment rights makes as much sense as registering the assets of every purported journalist that exercises the first amendment rights. That way, when they are libelous, confabulate, are obstructing justice by withholding names of sources, or do other crimes against the innocent their assets can be seized. I’m sure that proposal is just as constitutional and reasonable.

  • shrugger March 4, 2016, 3:30 am

    Is the author of this piece unaware that the NYT is populated in it’s entirety by true believing Regressive Leftist Zealots?
    Do try to keep up. Thanks. =P

  • Will Drider March 3, 2016, 9:05 pm

    Striking similarities between the Canadian vid and what we here from Australia!   Let me teach everyone a new term: SINGLE GENERATION CRIMILIZATION, DISARMAMENT AND CONFISCATION (SGCDC).   You haven’t heard of it but it is actually taking place in the guise of other Laws. Some of these have been on the books for a long time but not others.  Lets look at a few:  A convicted felon is firearms restricted and in turn his house and it effects all who live and visit there. Someone adjudged with mental illness and domesitc violence conviction are the same.  Then we have “temp”restrictions for those with restraining orders or the newest one “Someone “feels” you shouldn’t have a firearm. 
        Now the newer SGCDC:  just like the the NY Times article states “A more effective system would require everyone who owns or acquires a gun to register it,” “Gun owners would also need a license that could be obtained by demonstrating they can use a gun responsibly, and passing a background check.” They want it to be the Law of the Land.
        NY already  does it and here is the SGCDC: You die leaving three guns in your Estate. These guns are now illegal as the Registered owner is dead.  You have a few days to get them out of the State, turn them over (sell) to a FFL or turn them into Law Enforcement. If not done you will be charged with unlawfull posession of firearms and guns will be confiscated.  Either way, the guns are removed from the Family in one Generation.
        How about the VA making a mental competency judgement against you (without due process) because your spouse handles the finances. You loose your firearm ownership rights AND so does everyone in the household.  Got some bad dreams from the Sand Box or the Bush? PTSD one size fits all: your restricted!  How many criminals has the VA created with ths action?
        What if the No-Fly List restriction on gun ownership happens? Once again there is no due process and people on the list that own a gun would be instant criminals.  You would only find out if you can’t get on the plane or the Feds are kicking down your door and SURPRISE, your a CRIMINAL because you own a gun!
        How about the Doc’s and Glocks issue.  He is your Rx but 1 in 200000 people have mood swings depression or thoughts of suicide (you’ve seen the commercials on TV) so you loose your gun rights so the Dr doesn’t loose his Medical License.
        The Single Generation is also being cut away from its off spring.  The vast majority of universities and colleges are run by anti gun liberals who indoctrinate hungry minds with the PC anti gun agenda.  Now go to our ZERO gun tolerance K-12. No pop tart guns. Point your finger and say bang and your suspended or expelled WITH A RECORD!  These strictly enforced anti gun bad messages are inserted at every opertunity. Even the mass shooting drill drive that home. There is no positive exposure.  Some day they will VOTE with their beliefs based on their life experiences, what have they been programmed to fear: guns. They can’t play cops and robbers but boys can be girls and girls can be boys and urinate where they please. 
        We know that their overt desire after registration is confiscation but there is an interim step DISARMAMENT.  This is to reduce your access and possession of firearm types and capabilities: black rifles, 50 BMG rifles, magazines over seven rounds, types of ammo, importet firearms and ammo. Lets not forget the smart gun mandate.  They attempt to drive wedges between hunters and black gun owners and between target shooters and those that that only have a gun for defense. Take note of the changing numbers of gun owners THEY say support universal background checks. It as 52% then 80%, now they tout “over 90% of gun owners support it.”  Where are they getting this % they are marketing so heavily? They change zoning laws to deny business access, they add taxes and video burden on purchases to drive costs up to be non competitiveness to close gun shops. They mandate formal training some people can not afford, again placing a wall between citizens and their Constitutional Rights.
       Can anyone list a crime that there is not an existing Law to address it? A major part of the anti gun agenda is to create laws that only affect currently lawful actions and only intended to make gun owning citizens into criminals: convict them and they loose their gun Rights.  Every law they write and restriction imposed; allows them to cast a bigger net.  Statistics clearly how LE does not charge nor enforce existing gun laws (falsifying Form 4473 for example) on those with clear criminal intent yet they write laws that make you a criminal if you shower without your gun on your person and its not locked in a Safe!
        SINGLE GENERATION CRIMILIZATION, DISARMAMENT AND CONFISCATION.  Every single issue and angle pushed by the anti gun zelots supports it wether they call it a matter of crime prevention, gun violence, gun safety, child safety, suicide prevention or common sense. We, as Pro gun Americans are often distracted by one anti gun issue then the next. Its like being attacked by a pack of wolves and you can only fight one while the others dart in and take a bite. They will not stop until there is total firearms confiscation. What we need to keep in the forefront is the totality of ALL these issues on top of existing Law. I am thankful for those Patriots that fight the big and small battles on my behalf.
    Lastly, I’m real tired of hearing the anti gun speakers dropping the baby card, “if it saves just one child, its worth it”.  NO ITS NOT!  The blood of millions has spilled to to attain and maintain our Freedom.  Sympathy for one does not equal the sacrifices of a Nation establishing and maintaining our Freedom and Rights.

    • Rob D March 4, 2016, 7:45 am

      They VA even tried to send out free trigger locks, so they could build a database of which Vets have firearms. Later it comes out they will share this data along with any medical records with the FBI or whatever federal agency that wants to look into any Veteran. Having to deal with the VA regularly, I can tell you the VA is one of the most broken government systems I have ever seen. Their healthcare borders on being criminal a lot of times.

    • William F March 4, 2016, 8:09 am

      Will, thank you for taking the time to write such a well-thought and comprehensive response to the continued anti-American drivel shoveled by leftist media, politicos and power brokers. Your ideas would make an effective set of talking points for all patriots and defenders of the Constitution.

    • Tom Horn March 4, 2016, 9:14 am

      Agree with William.

      Well said.

  • Tom Horn March 3, 2016, 3:27 pm

    A poll taken at the end of last years showed that gun control is not high on the American public’s list of concerns. Yet, time and time, again, the gun grabbers (Obama and Hillary, especially) are whipping it up into a top priority issue for voters with their fear mongering.

  • SuperG March 3, 2016, 11:10 am

    The answer to solving gun violence is published every year by the FBI. Repeat offenders and the crazy are the perpetrators, yet we do nothing to get rid of or treat them. Instead, we turn our narrow vision on an inanimate object and lay all the blame on it. Why hasn’t that worked? Because the criminals and crazies don’t obey the laws. Adding more laws will be just as ineffective as the current ones.
    If you executed the repeat violent felon after their 3rd conviction of a violent crime, you’d not only reduce violence but create prison bed space. If we had an on-call panel of 3 psychiatrists at every police station that could force people into a mental health evaluation, we would start to clean up the crazy problem. Stop any cop and ask them if they’ve ever suspected someone of being mentally ill and they’ll answer yes. This would be expensive, and until “our” government looks to taking care of its citizens instead of buying multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers, this problem will never be solved.

    • Bill May 26, 2016, 7:57 am

      Well said. The current crop of “gun control” ideas do not adrees the problem, the crimanals who commit the crimes are not being targeted. I don’t want the type of stop and frisk that they did in NYC. People who ar in jail for non volient crimes should be out on parole and the volient ones in jail. The treatment of the mentaly I’ll must be done. When the Surprem Court says that a mental I’ll person can not be forced to take their meds.

      Address the causes of crime, mental illness, and enforce the current laws. No law has EVER stoped the bahavior of any person. All the law can do is punish the person that broke the law.

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