J.D. Tuccille on How Government Officials Doom Gun Registration Laws
The problem for gun control advocates is that they keep promising that no way will registration lead to confiscation of firearms, even as it does just that.
In November 2013, Robert Farago of the Truth About Guns blog began publishing letters received by gun owners in New York City demanding the surrender of rifles and shotguns that hold more than five rounds. While New York state recently passed the controversial SAFE Act imposing registration and restrictions on "assault weapons" and "high-capacity" magazines, the city law has been on the books for years, though apparently only intermittently enforced. Amidst the post-Newtown debate over gun control, though, Big Apple officials' new dedication to poring over registration records and weeding out forbidden weapons couldn't help but fuel fears of confiscation—and thereby spur defiance of already faltering registration schemes in New York, Connecticut, and elsewhere. The problem for gun control advocates, writes J.D. Tuccille, is that they keep promising that no way will registration lead to confiscation of firearms, even as it does just that.