Sangamon County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois


Jim Butler

Firearm Registration
 Gateway to Loss of Freedom
Jim Butler, President, SCRA
 October 2008 GunNews







We have seen the worthlessness of gun registration in Illinois.  Chicago has had a handgun registration since 1982 yet their murder and violent crime rate has soared through the roof making our state a national disgrace.  Illinois also has a Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID) required to purchase a firearm, and is only another registration scheme to identify legal Illinois firearm owners.  It hasn't worked either to stop criminals from using violence and intimidation against helpless and disarmed citizens.

Criminals, unless they are incredibly stupid, don't register their guns.  You may ask, why not?  Because, according to the Supreme Court, criminals do not have to obtain licenses or register their weapons, as this would be an act of self-incrimination.  (Haynes vs. U.S. 390 U.S. 85 1968.).

We have been told by anti-gun politicians that gun registration will not lead to confiscation of firearms in the United States.  Another lie.  It has already happened in the United States.

It happened in California where the 1989 Robert Roos Assault Weapons Control Act required registration.  Due to changing definitions of "assault weapons", many legal firearms have been confiscated by the California government.

Confiscation of firearms also occurred in New York City after the city in 1967 passed an ordinance requiring a citizen to obtain a permit to own a rifle or shotgun, which would then be registered.  But in 1991, the city passed a ban on the private possession of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and "registered" owners were told that these firearms had to be surrendered, rendered inoperable, or taken out of the city.

The anti-self-defense movement frequently brings up the fact that other countries register guns to fight crime. Most of these laws were enacted in the post World War I period to prevent civil uprisings as had occurred in the Russian Revolution, and which led to the horrors of communism under the leadership of Nikolai Lenin and Joseph Stalin.  A report of "Committee on the Control of Firearms", written by the British Home Officials in 1918 was the basis for registration in the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

At least New Zealand was smart enough to repeal their gun registration law in the 1980's after police acknowledged its worthlessness.

Many of the above named countries have found registration an expensive boondoggle with little effect in stopping crime, and ignored by many of their citizens.  Other countries with gun registration have had similar results.  Gun registration by tyrants is great for controlling law abiding people but has little effect on criminals, some of whom were even in control of these countries.

Hitler comes to mind.  Nazis used gun control registration lists to disarm the people of countries they had conquered and to prevent them from regaining their freedom.

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms; history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.

Adolf Hitler

After Hitler came to power in Germany the first people he disarmed were the Jews.  He then systematically began slaughtering them in an attempt to wipe out an entire race of people.

After World War II, Arab countries and their allies around the small State of Israel tried to wipe out all the Jews living there.  But, the Israel Jews had learned from their sad experience that began with gun registration laws in Germany.  They fought their enemies off with weapons, many of which were acquired illegally or homemade.  Their motto was "Never again".  A tough, proud little nation with the heart of a lion.

After firearms were registered in Bermuda, Cuba, Greece, Ireland, Jamaica and Soviet Georgia, they were banned and confiscated as well.

Historically, gun control by using firearm registration has led to confiscation, and is about controlling people, not controlling crime.


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