I have followed gun debates on the SDMB for many years.
I ask this question.
If a new Federal, State or local law required you to register your existing guns, would you?
No internet tough guy stuff here. If a non registered gun is found, let’s say the penalty for not registering a gun is $1000. Per gun.
I don’t know if I would register them.
I’m very disturbed about the people that work for the so called Homeland Security. IMHO, many of those folks took the job because it pays better than flipping burgers.
It isn’t Andy Griffith any more. There seems to be a lot of little people with a lot of power.
Depends on the penalty for not registering, of course, but…
There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 guns in this house. I’d probably register some and hide one or two pistols, rifles and shotguns each, just because, uh, you know.
I would have no trouble registering my firearms. I think it’s far more important for handguns, but if they wanted me to register rifles and shotguns, I see no problem as long as the system was reasonably easy to use and didn’t make it too difficult to sell, or trade weapons.
I definitely would not register the handgun(s), and if I had long guns I’d probably get rid of them instead of registering them (because as noted above they’re not easily concealable).
I don’t like the idea. If you have the serial numbers written down somewhere and the gun is stolen, you can get it entered into NCIC, so if it’s recovered in a crime you may get it back. But it’s none of the government’s business whether or not I own it. The problem is in the ease of procurement, which is where law-making efforts should be directed.
Although I run into the problem where I may become a hypocrite–if you’re living on an Air Force Base, you’re now required to register them.
However, as long as I can avoid it, I will not. I keep a list of their S/Ns if, God forbid it, they get stolen, but only so I can recover them like Chefguy mentioned.
Tripler
My guns is my business–not that of the government’s (at any level).
Considering that the Dept. of Homeboy Security has access to all US internet traffic, why would you tag yourself as someone who would answer “no”? That doesn’t seem prudent.
The DHS doesn’t normally do that sort of enforcement, they leave that to the ATF (Treasury Department).
This board does not directly tie my address and/or name to my posts. Sure they could look up what credit card was used to renew this account’s membership, but IIRC, the Chicago Reader doesn’t hand that out freely, and the ATF or DHS would need a warrant.
In no way does this post enumerate what I’ve got, nor how many of anything. I could have two peashooters, or a couple of .50-cal Beretta rifles. Either way, I haven’t registered 'em, so they will need a warrant to search and find out.
I’ll take my chances they don’t need to invade my privacy, and that they don’t need to know what I’ve got. It ain’t none of their business.
Tripler
If they want to know, they can ask. I’ll politely decline to tell them.
Yeah, so if ten years form now the US Government decides to make firearm registration mandatory I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to back to archived message boards to see who responded yes or no to this particular question. Unless enipla is an agent to the government and is taking down names.