Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: A Federal Firearms Operator's License [View all]Bazinga
(331 posts)whether or not guns should remain protected is the crux of the gun debate, but until the 2nd amendment get's repealed, we have to give them some level of deference vs cars.
IMHO, the "fear" of registration does hinge on the threat of confiscation. The rationality of that fear is still up in the air. Do I think the government will use a registry to confiscate legally owned weapons? No. Has it occurred in the past? Not really, though the threat was levied in CA when SKS rifles were banned. And therein lies the fear of many regarding registries. The promise that "legal" weapons will never be confiscated is severely undermined when there is the possibility that "legal" weapons can be legislated as "illegal" weapons and then confiscated. In any case, it would do much better to address that concern (which I trust can be done as a part of any registration bill, perhaps with an explicit grandfather clause) rather than dismiss the concern and those who raise it as "irrational."
A second element, of course, is the fact that those who are on the registry have done nothing wrong, and those who do wrong things are not on the registry. Now there is some merit for tracking weapons in the case of once-law-abiding gun owners, however, I have a hard time justifying the tracking of the law-abiding on the basis of crimes they might commit in the future.