Bearing Arms: After the post about the police recovering stolen guns, a reader contacted me. He pointed out how gun owners tend to be a little paranoid about the government knowing what they own, thus why they don’t report their guns missing.
It’s a fair point. As a community, we tend to try and keep that stuff as secret as possible.
He also brought up mandatory reporting laws, legislation that’s been proposed in various places that would require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within a certain amount of time.
Now, I have a major problem with mandatory reporting laws. Part of the reason? Well, it’s part of the same reason why I oppose universal background checks.
They’re unenforceable without gun registration.
Take my firearms for example. I’ve mentioned a couple here and there on this site, but I have a number I haven’t. Let’s say those guns were stolen and I failed to report them for whatever reason. How can I reasonably be caught breaking this law?
Without gun registration, I can’t. No one will know that firearm belonged to me. No one will know if it was stolen, lost, sold, or what. Not a soul. more
Submit myself to the tedious bureaucracy to report a theft that has a near-zero chance of being recovered, or returned by the cops if it is recovered?
Fuck that.
If I have any idea who the thief is, we don’t need no stinking badges…
There is defacto registration in that the serial number can be traced back to the maker, seller, and then buyer..
But they don’t want to take your guns. Rrrrrrrright.
They will know when it’s found in Leroy’s possession and he forgot to scratch a serial number off that’s hidden in the internals. Yeah sure, there was no direct reporting of your purchase, the serial number isn’t added anywhere on the 4473. However, they can run that number through the system and find out which FFL issued the gun, which then his records will reveal you as the actual purchaser. Now, whether or not you can prove that you sold the gun lawfully to someone else or didn’t report it lost or stolen. That’s a whole other issue.
Groucho – not if it’s a private sale – that’s why that “loophole” is avidly sought to be closed by the commies.
Here’s the perfectly logical and reasonable solution to run by Leftists: force criminals to register their guns. Law abiding citizens will almost never use their weapons in the commission of crimes; criminals inevitably will. So make THEM register. Leave law abiding gun owners alone.
What’s that, you say? It’s impossible? Criminals will never register their guns?
Fair point. A criminal is by definition selective on which laws he’ll obey. Gun laws are the absolute LAST he’ll obey.
So why force law abiding legal gun owners under the boot of increasingly onerous regulations?
Only possible reason is to know who to take them from when the time comes, exactly as Hitler said was the true purpose of registration, because you think peaceful, law abiding gun owners are a greater threat to the society you envision than violent armed criminals.
Which we all know is the case.
Who can keep track of all those tragic boating accidents where entire lifetime collections are lost? Especially when there are never any witnesses.
As someone else pointed out: They don’t trust us with guns, but we are supposed to trust them with power. I trust them as much as they trust me. That is to say, not at all. Back to the “house divided”.
They don’t trust me with guns I don’t trust them with teaching credentials.
So when the day comes for confiscation and you say the guns were lost or stolen, they will arrest you for THAT. Either way you are screwed.
“So when the day comes for confiscation and you say the guns were lost or stolen, they will arrest you for THAT. Either way you are screwed.”
Yup.
Hypothetical:
So what happens if someone “mistakenly” reports his gun/s as stolen or lost? You can’t be made to prove you don’t have them anymore; they can’t prove you’re “mistaken.” If SHTF, no bureaucrat is going to have time to say, “HEY! That’s the rifle you said was stolen!”
Sorry, I didn’t know it was missing?
Trying to comply will usually get you in trouble. Like that farmer in California with 12 felonies against him.
No thank you.
Eighty percent, baby.
That’s all I have to say about that.
The reality about being burglarized is that you rarely get your stuff back unless you personally know who stole your stuff in the first place.