Statewide Gun Registration - An Idea Whose Time Has Come

State governments need to know who owns what guns.

For a long time I agreed with the NRA position that gun registration proposals should be opposed at all costs, for they are the first step in gun confiscation. However, I have come to believe that well-regulated gun registration schemes, on a STATE-BY-STATE basis, are now needed.

PLEASE ALLOW ME MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR THAT I OPPOSE ANY EFFORTS TO IMPOSE A FEDERAL GUN REGISTRATION SCHEME.

The problem that we are faced with, which calls for firearm registration, is how to know when someone who can no longer own a gun does, in fact, own one. Expecting the mentally ill, or those subject to protection from abuse orders, or those convicted of felonies, to VOLUNTARILY inform the authorities of what guns they own is naive.

Therefore, I support the notion that individual state government need to develop a firearm registration regime that will permit the authorities to know what guns are out there, and who is responsible for them.

This is the only way, as I see it, that we can effectively keep legally purchased firearms out of the hands of those who cannot safely possess them.