Even as news that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) “Assault Weapon” ban is really a ban on some of the most popular civilian-owned handguns in the U.S., details of her promised legislation also show that it will require gun owners to register their guns with the government.
Feinstein’s legislation does this by banning the import, possession, and transfer of hundreds of different weapons, but making special allowances for gun owners who already own the weapons on the ban list. On first read, the owner of an AR-15, a Glock, or a Smith & Wesson M&P might breathe a sigh of relief for the special allowances. Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the provision.
The government has to know you own the gun in order for you to receive special allowances. And how will they know? They will know because the bill requires you to tell them.
Feinstein’s legislation throws some gun owners a bone by saying, “[It will protect] the rights of existing gun owners by grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment,” but it then states: “It will require any grandfathered weapon to be registered under the National Firearms Act.”
This will require not simply the registration of the specific gun’s serial number but also a photograph and fingerprints of the owner as well. This would necessarily take away the ability of people to sell guns in private sales to friends or family members too.
When certain anti-gun politicians or administrations broached the subject of registration in the past and the NRA or Gun Owners of America quickly pointed out that registration would lead to confiscation, liberals laughed and accused the “gun lobby” of being paranoid or conspiratorial. However, now, in the wake of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s bald admission that he believes gun confiscation a viable option, the days of laughing off the dangers associated with registration are long gone.
The Democrats have declared war on gun owners and the only right which our Founding Fathers described as “necessary to the security of a free state.”
If we are foolish enough to embrace a ban on any weapon in the coming Congress, then we are unwittingly embracing a ban on every weapon.
Republicans in the House and Senate need to let Feinstein and company know this is a non-starter, and voters need to start weighing potential congressional candidates for 2014 on the basis of where they stand on the 2nd Amendment.
Gun-grabbers need not apply.