By Chris Black
President Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that the Congress should basically create a national gun registry, as he proposed something along the lines of “comprehensive background checks”, whatever that means. Here’s the tweet:
I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue – I hope!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018
The thing is, this tweet can be interpreted in 2 ways. If you’re a leftist, you may argue that President Trump finally caved on gun control, and in the aftermath of the Florida high-school shooting he’s asking Congress to create a national gun registry and universal background check legislation, a measure pushed and lauded by the anti 2nd amendment left for years. It’s interesting that not even dear leader Barry Obama did not dare pass such a law, when the Democrats had total control over the US government, and it would be very weird for the Donald to do such a thing, that would alienate his fan base for ever, making him a one-term president. In case you’re not getting the part with the national gun registry, you should know that universal background checks cannot work sans a national gun registry. And following gun registration requirements, there’s just one small step to make, which inevitably leads to gun confiscation. The example is California, where universal background checks were followed immediately by registration requirements and then by gun confiscation legislation. Check out this tweet from the NRA about the gun-registry issue:
“.. this scheme would be unenforceable without creating a gun registry.”#NewMexico https://t.co/GditbX4NlU
— NRA (@NRA) February 8, 2017
For the government to be capable to enforce universal background checks, it must know exactly who is owning and/or selling a firearm, when and to whom. To make things simple, the Federal Government has to identify all gun owners and all the guns in the US, and then to monitor each and every one of them 24/7, the owners and guns alike. The question is, how would such a measure prevent mass shootings? The answer is it would not, but it would clearly set the stage for gun confiscation laws, just like California did, and also would make it more difficult for law abiding citizens to legally purchase guns.
Remember, the United States of America is the same nation that cannot even place all illegal aliens on a Federal Registry, like the US Census. And speaking of registering all guns in the US, what if I say: sorry sir, I’ve lost my guns in a boating accident over the weekend ! Don’t have any to register !! It would be fun to see the Feds trying to register existing guns, considering how incompetent they are.
The only reason for a gun registry is so a government can come take guns away from the citizenry. The main reason for the Second Amendment is to protect the citizenry from a government that becomes tyrannical. The government should just assume that every citizen has guns. Background checks that exclude certain people based on felony convictions or other legitimate reasons, that do not pass the identity of gun purchasers on to government agencies, is completely different than a national gun registry.
A gun registry and strengthened emphasis on mental health will result in confiscations of a 25% of veterans arms and 12.5% of society at large. If you account for anyone who has ever taken antidepressants, it could be a third of all Americans. A few months ago we were talking about the wall, deporting all illegals, making silencers legal, and national reciprocity. And now gun control?
The second way you can interpret Trump’s tweet is master-trolling, i.e. he just made gun sales soar. Let’s wait and see how this plays out.