Flashback–Obama Admin: Universal Background Checks Need Gun Registry

On January 4, 2013, National Institute of Justice Deputy Director Greg Ridgeway observed universal background checks need to be coupled with a gun registry in order to be effective.

Ridgeway’s observation came as the Obama administration was brainstorming on possible gun controls to push in the weeks after the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Breitbart News has Ridgeway’s document, “Summary of Select Firearm Violence Prevention Strategies.”

The summary looks at gun buybacks, “high capacity” magazine bans, “assault weapons” bans, and universal background checks.

In the section on universal background checks Ridgeway wrote, “Effectiveness depends on…requiring gun registration.”

Ridgeway noted:

Most states do not have a registry of firearm ownership. Currently NICS background checks are destroyed within 24 hours. Some states maintain registration of all firearms. Gun registration aims to 1) increase owner responsibility by directly connecting an owner with a gun, 2) improve law enforcement’s ability to retrieve guns from owners prohibited from possessing firearms.

Gun registration also allows for the monitoring of multiple gun purchases in a short period of time.

On August 13, 2019, Breitbart News reported universal background checks are unenforceable without a gun registry. The registry is necessary because universal background checks portend a check for every sale, whether retail or private. Therefore, the government has to know where all guns are, at all times, in order to know whether a gun is changing hands.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.