Delaware is about to pass a better-background check bill. The bill already has passed the House. It goes before the Senate. Of particular interest, was the added amendment stating that these background checks would not be used for any registry.
If that is the price we have to pay for having mandatory background checks, then so be it. We can let that ride for a year. There are some paranoid fears that such a registry will be used to collect all weapons at some future point, just like there was once paranoia that UFOs would abduct humans and do experiments on them. (Btw, isn't it really odd how none of those UFO abductions happen anymore? Ever since the internet made checking up easy......)
As humans evolved from the upright walking members of the ape family, we preserved instincts that keep our species alive. For one, we pull back from things we do not understand... But once we come to understand, we then fully embrace. I can remember a child's story of a pioneer girls first ride on a train; it took her breath away. I can remember my rapid heartbeats down the runway as my first plane-ride took off into the air...
Once we understand and accept, we let go of our fear...
As most of you will attest, I too once feared registries.
The "what-if's" outweighed the "naw, it-can-never-happen's." The one sliver of good Newtown caused, was a dialogue around the nation over gun control.... Both right wing and left wing all had something to say...
The consensus of which is this: it is obviously apparant that the NRA has staked both its reputation and clout upon the selling of the "fear of registry." Without that, their entire organization would revert back to training both Boy Scouts and new purchasers how to safely use their first weapon...
Because of this fanned-up-fear of gun registry, the NRA has fought all attempts to regulate guns out of the hands of criminals... As only one example... take Adam Lanza....
On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza had a Bushmaster .223 rifle. That was his 2nd Amendment right.
On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza had at least eight 30-round magazines for his Bushmaster. That was his 2nd Amendment right.
On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza had a 10mm Glock semi-automatic handgun with several 10-round magazines. That was his 2nd Amendment right.
On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza had a Saiga 12 gauge shotgun with at least 70 "Double-Ought" Buckshot rounds. That was his 2nd Amendment right.
In his home on December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza had over 1000 rounds of ammunition for his Bushmaster in a safe along with a certificate of marksmanship training from the National Rifle Association. That was his 2nd Amendment right.
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza brought all of his legal weapons (as was his right) and killed 26 people inside Sand Hook Elementary School, firing 154 shots in less than 5 minutes. Twenty-two of his "targets" were children under the age of 6. He was obviously trained well by the NRA.
This could have been prevented. All it took was a gun registry.
How would that have made a difference? Well, you tell me! What is your first impression just reading what Adam Lanza had accumulated? Creepy? Probably, you said something along the lines of "OH MY GOODNESS" This much firepower in the hands of one 20 year old is probably a bad idea. Not everyone who has guns, will kill. But having this many? This much? Would you give odds of 98%, perhaps this certain accumulation implies an outcome that will probably turn out bad?
A gun registry would show just what we showed above. A computer could send a warning that something is amiss.... Police could have checked out the addressee of that location, accounted for all the legal guns, and noticed.... hmmmm. some one here was a little mentally ill.... Perhaps help could have been given to the mentally ill issue without any gun-related actions being taken?....
But under the NRA imposed blackout of all gun sales, no one even suspected Adam Lanza was creepy enough to blow the heads off tiny children. A gun registry of the above weapons would have made that the number one suspicion long before any type of crime was committed....
Secondly, we register a lot of things. Why should guns get any special consideration. We register cars. We register appliances. There is a thing called a credit bureau; it tracks our financials. We register dogs. We register our homes. We register our phones. We register ourselves with utilities, with banks. We are registered with what click onto the internet. Registering is simply an act of providing information that can better benefit society. Nothing more. Nothing less.
It is time we removed the NRA blackout on all gun sales. Maybe not this year. Maybe not the next. But inevitably, just as with gay marriage, we need to look at the issue with smart goggles, not dumb ones....
If we registered every gun, we could then track murderers by the bullets they used. It would mean to escape the law, one would have to acquire a "clean" gun, commit the crime, and never use it again.... To commit a murder you wanted to walk away from, would require that much work and a considerable amount of money. Compare that to today, just walking into any gunshop, buying a gun, driving to the target and putting the clip's contents into his skull, and being able to do it again, and again, and again.....
So, to you, the normal reader, under which scenario would you feel safer? Having all weapons registered? Or like today, not one single one?
The fears of confiscation are unfounded. All one has to do is try to plan how to confiscate the 330 million firearms scattered across America.... I have. It is impossible.
Sometimes it is more prudent at a moment, to maneuver around existing fears than spend the effort to eliminate them completely.... Elimination of long held views takes time. Just look at how fear of gay marriage as evaporated, as facts get pushed instead of David-Anderson falsities.... With that, is is acceptable to accept the amendment to not do a registry, just as compromises were done during the 1840's which curbed but did not eliminate the right to own slaves. Yet if you were a slave, you probably were very disappointed with that compromise.
Many needless deaths will continue without a national registry. Some could be friends or family you know. Who, just like 20 little school children, got up, ate breakfast, got a ride to school,did the Pledge of Allegiance, sat down,and began a normal day, just like every other.
Simply put. Having a national gun registry could have prevented what was about to occur more effectively than any new law or any statute....