Replies

You completely missed my use of parallelism. I was pointing out the problem with the word “register” when applied to the word “firearm”. We don’t have to register when we invoke other freedoms.

You also missed the point that felons are going to lie about possessing firearms. And forcing a felon to tell the truth about possessing a firearm would violate his 5th amendment rights, which the Left takes extreme umbrage at.

I see your point. We don’t have to register to write, pray or talk to one another.

However, (unless you are Muslim) your worship doesn’t usually kill someone. When you write or speak publically, you have some responsibility on telling the truth; that’s why we have laws on slander.

Guns are a tool, who’s purpose is to cause death. One could argue that some are long range paper-punches, but generally they are designed for the taking of a life, usually that of game or varmit. That said, registering these guns is a means of issuing some kind of responsibility to the owner of these guns. If I sell you 3 guns, and we find that these guns were used in the commission of a crime, the phrase “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do” will likely be used. If these guns are stolen from your house - now we have a means of adding Burlary to the list of charges that the actual criminal will face.

Simply saying “Gee, that mass-produced Glock looks a lot like the one I used to have” is meaningless, unless you can back that up with a serial number. I see nothing wrong with this.

As far as your comment about a Felon lying about owning a firearm - he probably lied about the felony he committed too. If he is caught with a weapon, or if he commits another crime and his house is checked (pretty much SOP) and a gun is found - he will face an additional felony charge for the weapon.

The part that may be ‘unfair’ is, if there is a weapon in his home that he has reasonable access to (which can mean almost anything), it doesn’t matter if the handgun is registered to his parents, wife, girlfriend, children, great-aunt twice removed on his step-uncle’s Dads side of the family. If there is ANY weapon (shotgun, rifle, handgun) in an area where he has “reasonable access to” - he will get a second felony charge added to his list.

Bottom line: It’s really a good idea not to be a felon.