Is This the First Step to a Federal Gun Registry?

Hawaii has just passed a bill that would require state officials to enter all firearm owners into an FBI database, a step that could put the nation on the road to a federal gun registry.

“This is an extremely dangerous bill,” said NRA spokesperson Amy Hunter. “Exercising a constitutional right is not inherently suspicious. Hawaii will now be treating firearms as suspect and subject to constant monitoring.”

The bill is currently awaiting the governor’s signature. If it becomes law, Hawaii will begin sharing gun owners with the federal government, placing those names in a FBI database called the Rap Back. This is a list of individuals in “positions of trust,” including schoolteachers and those who work with the elderly.

Proponents of the bill (and a federal gun registry) claim that a centralized database would enable police to trace crime scene weapons back to their owners. This argument seems sensible. It suffers from only one small flaw: It isn’t true.

How do we know this? John Lott, Jr., a prominent gun-rights expert, explained the flaw in a Fox News editorial:

Criminals seldom make the mistake of leaving behind guns that are registered to themselves. In the few cases where registered guns are left at the scene, it is because the criminals have already been killed or injured. And these guns are virtually never registered to the person who committed the crime.

Critics will say that it doesn’t matter. If we can use this registry to solve even one crime a year, it’s worth it.

But this ignores the dangers inherent in such a registry. When the Obama administration is actively seeking to take guns away from seniors and military veterans without due process, we cannot afford to be naive.

Gun control fanatics are not stupid. They know measures like universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, federal registries, and assault rifle bans will not bring down the rate of American gun violence. These are efforts designed to inch us closer to the only “gun control” laws that will make a difference: Mass disarmament.