If so what were your reasons, and are you concerned about the potential consequences? I’m mostly concerned with people required to register, obviously. This does not include women and many foreign nationals.
Full disclaimer: I am a member of a Selective Service local board. However, I have no power to punish people for failure to register, and whatever authority I have regarding Selective Service is limited to Prince William County, Virginia.
I have a good friend who didn’t. He didn’t make a big deal out of it, he simply neglected to register. His reason: he’s openly gay, and his arguement is he’s not allowed in the military anyway, so it’s not like he’s going to be drafted.
As far as I know, he thought about the possible consequences, decided they were outweighed by his moral opinion on the topic, and didn’t register.
Mr. Moto, just out of curosity, what are the penalties or potential problems from not registering?
I reg’d at 18, so I’m just curious.
Theoretically, it’s possible that criminal sanctions could be imposed. This would be almost unheard of today, though.
More common is people screwing up benefits and job opportunities. From the Selective Service website, the following sanctions are listed:
Also, many state benefits are linked as well. For instance, here in Virginia, the following applies:
[puzzled foreigner]So, is this like registering for a draft or something like that?[/puzzled foreigner]
Yep.
I did the day I turned 18, but it doesn’t really matter, as I can’t be drafted, because not am I openly gay, but I’m also an ordained minister. Take that, army.
I didnt register until I was 21, and only did so because I need to take out some school loans. To be honest, at the time, I didn’t know I had to register and for that matter, where. So I just kinda forgot about it.
When they first started making people register again in the early 80’s, lots of people didn’t do it. A small handfull didn’t do it and made a big public stink as a form of protest. The first one was Ben Sasway who spent a little time in jail for it.
Haj
I know a guy who’s probably 19, maybe 20 now, who hadn’t registered last time I talked to him (he was 18 and several months then), out of paranoia. He grows (grew? it’s been a while) all kinds of interesting things in his garage, and I guess he figures the first step is registering for the draft and the next step is suspicionless random FBI searches and seizures. AFAIK he hasn’t suffered in any way from it.
As for me, I registered as soon as I turned 18. I wasn’t particularly afraid of the consequences of not registering, but my parents are government-employed so I thought it might reflect on them negatively if I didn’t. Turns out it was a good idea, as I’m now enlisting in the USAF and every little bit of compliance helps. I’m exempt anyway (only living son), so I have nothing to lose from having registered.
I had some college friends who were convinced that getting an ordination-by-mail from the Universal Life Church in Modesto, CA would cover them.
I bet if push came to shove, they’d invalidate all Universal Life Church ordinations-by-mail (or nowadays, ordinations-by-web).
So we’re, uh, discussing illegal activity here? Count me out. q;}
Just to clear up a confusion some people seem to have, there’s no exemption from registering because you are gay, are a clergyman, or are a consciencous objector.
Yes, but if you’re gay and don’t go out of your way to hide it, you are not permitted to be in the military. Thus, my gay friend decided not to register: if, for some unthinkable, unfathomable reason, a draft were reinstated, he wouldn’t be allowed to serve regardless.
You can count the SDMB out as well. Nothing good, and plenty bad, can come from a “Tell Us If You Broke The Law” type of thread.