How would a national gun registry affect the US?

Ultimately, very little.

They’ll treat it the same way they treated mandatory car insurance.

First everyone bitches like is the end of the world, then somet just refuse to do it, but they all do t anyway and eventually people start talking about their favorite gun registrar commercial with the little talking lizard, and no one can remember being the idiot that complained in the first place over something that ultimately isn’t that big a deal.

Well, I would like to see a paper trail from manufacture to store to consumer and all points in-between. (and yes, I know people would still die. It isn’t a all or nothing thing)

If one of those points failed to report the transaction they would be held accountable. Unless the gun was stolen and you could have a few weeks to report it. Obviously you couldn’t buy 1000 guns and report them all stolen. If that happened we could toss you in jail with the people that had some weed.

^^^ Yes, the paper trail. But along with it, from manufacturer to end user, I’d also like to see an accompanying ballistics test result which firmly identifies the weapon and links the weapon with the last legal buyer. All barrel purchases would also require ballistic tests. These are the fingerprints of the weapon. This would be invaluable if the weapon was ever used in a crime leaving behind a decent looking round. At least LEOs would know where to start in the event of a gun-related crime. I mean, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right.

The people who bitch and complain that their guns are being taken away (when they obviously aren’t) would bitch and complain more. Law enforcement would have a new tool to track down criminals. Nothing else would change.

^ and what they said.

They tried that in Canada and after enough years they realized it did nothing to enhance public safety, it was abandoned. The list was inaccurate because of documentation errors and also they knew there were probably millions of weapons that were not registered from the beginning. It cost them millions each year to maintain it so to some it was a wasteful money pit.

But @woodcutter… we’re America. We don’t look to others for case study evidence. We don’t worry about the money. The true value is talking points for politicrats to rally around.

Reality? Pshaw.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Hahaha yep. Throw money at it.

Show me one criminal who registers any gun they find. Most of us have a healthy distrust of the govt for lots of reasons. The only practical purpose to force the legal owners of firearms to register is to have in place a mechanism for confiscation at a later time. No one can promise that will never happen. And even if someone is bold enough to make that promise, most thinking people already know any promise made by a govt official is about as worthless as the paper its written on. Because we all expect promises to be in writing, right?

It’s a silly idea on its face.

How many current criminals do you expect will register their guns “because it’s the law”?

How many currently law-abiding people do you expect will become “technical” criminals simply from failure to know about the law or follow it properly? Or will become ensnared in the legal system because of the errors (or malfeasance) of others?

So, given a “national gun registry”, we’d have all of the current criminals, still criminals, and we’d be adding to the list those who because of ignorance, defiance or error are now labeled criminals.

All that would happen is that a new national bureaucracy would start up, with new costs and regulations (and top-dollar managers) – and new levels of legality and enforcement to navigate – and you’d prevent normally responsible and law-abiding people from acquiring weapons (which, until we repeal it, is still a Second Amendment right, after all). Meanwhile, criminals would still be able to acquire the weapons they want.

War on Guns, anyone?

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Do you realize what you just said? Because we are America we shall blindly forge ahead, not paying any attention to how the same idea has worked out for others before us.

I can’t imagine how that reasoning would get anyone anywhere.

The reason we have done as well as we have as a nation is because our founding fathers worked hard to see what government systems had worked out best for others throughout history.

And by the way, money actually matters. We can’t keep pretending it grows on trees.

There is already a clandestine national registry building as we speak. For years now the BATFE has been going to FLL’s and copying their form 4473’s for their own records so, there is the national registry. Its not a well known thing mainly because its technically a federal crime to do that. The federal govt. violating federal law…? No way.

Yes..way

This is mainly why there is so much push back to these “so called background checks” As if they aren’t already happening. NICS…anyone? I wish this could be absorbed and digested. The record of sale is supposed to be destroyed by the dealer within a day. Thats not happening. If we could force BATFE to stop this records confiscation for good, then you might see more people on board with more stringent checks but as long as they are doing it anyway behind our backs then let them make use of that one. We don’t need two or more separate running lists of the same thing. Not by this corrupt govt.

@woodcutter The gun registry has not been abandoned in Canada. What has been abandoned is the recently-implemented long gun registry. This is not because it “did nothing to enhance public safety”, nor does it reflect the will of most Canadians. It was scrapped because we currently have an extremely (for Canada) conservative party in office at the moment, whose leader worships Republican ideals.

This is what happens when you combine a multi-party system with a first-past-the-post voting system. Most Canadians voted among the various liberal parties, and the ultra-conservatives ended up with a “majority vote” because the conservative minority is united.

@glacial It seems like you lament a fact of life that elections have consequences. Leaders don’t elect themselves, you do. If there is a culture swing going on there its because there are enough voters unsatisfied with the status- quo. It can’t be defined any other way. Here is a link explaining cost overruns as well as statements from officials claiming it was useless for a crime fighting tool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Firearms_Registry
read it

A survey in August 2010 revealed that 72 percent of Canadians believe the long-gun registry has done nothing to prevent crime.

Former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino opposed the gun registry, stating in a press release in 2003:

”We have an ongoing gun crisis including firearms-related homicides lately in Toronto, and a law registering firearms has neither deterred these crimes nor helped us solve any of them. None of the guns we know to have been used were registered, although we believe that more than half of them were smuggled into Canada from the United States. The firearms registry is long on philosophy and short on practical results considering the money could be more effectively used for security against terrorism as well as a host of other public safety initiatives.”[14]

You are wrong and I am right. You are nitpicking my post for the sake of nitpicking. The basic tenants of what I submit is accurate.

You said: “What has been abandoned is the recently-implemented long gun registry” (end quote)... It was implemented in 1993 by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Recently implemented you say? It’s been about 20 years. Do you really expect anyone to believe that, that time frame was not a long enough life for this failed experiment? Like, it was going to turn around soon and do what it was supposed to? C’mon. In February 2004, documents obtained by Zone Libre of Télévision de Radio-Canada suggested that the gun registry has cost around $2 billion so far.[7]

Two Billion dollars. Two words for that….Boon – doggle. Thats what liberals do. They make all these feel good laws and don’t care they are ineffective or how much they cost. If the US gets involved in such a scheme you can bet it will make the Canadian misadventure look like small change.

And it will work no better than the now defunct Canadian experiment.

@woodcutter I have read it, darling. I’ve also listened to newscasts and interviews, and read articles from dozens of sources over the past 30 years about gun control in Canada. My experience with this is greater than yours, which consists of about 30 minutes of Wikipedia mining.

Do you think for a moment that I believe that anything that I or anyone else should say to you can possibly change your mind on the issue of gun control? You’ve made it clear in every Fluther question on this issue that you have no interest in hearing anything but the sound of your own voice.

Aww I hope you haven’t been too awfully disillusioned about human nature being what it is. You’re gonna be fine. You are in a jam right now so you do what ya’ll do in these situations. One being to refute what ever the other guy knows… Ala ET-Pro. Then comes the race baiting but that is ok. I’m hurtin for ya.

Screw the guns. They are now hopelessly outclassed.

Where can I get my own drone?

If we Americans can cobble a gun from plastic then by golly we shall have drones!