Why would people be afraid to register their guns? How will it actually hurt them?
This is a question that is often asked as a subtle jab by those who champion “common sense gun control”. It’s the ArmsCart.com stance that no such concept exists in reality. There is no such thing as common sense gun control.
That doesn’t mean there cannot be common sense gun laws, or common sense promoted throughout the industry. It doesn’t even mean that no controls can exist. It simply means that we don’t buy the idea that there still exist “common sense” gun control ideas. That game has run its course. Without getting too far off topic, gun related crimes have been sharply declining since 1979 or so. The incidence of law abiding citizens or guns that were legally obtained firearms, especially rifles, being used to perpetrate crimes translates to a number that is unbelievably small.
More crimes are committed with hammers each year than with AR-15’s.
But the question isn’t about misconceptions in the gun control space, or how to argue against emotions. It was about the reality of gun registration schemes.
Again, not to get too far derailed, there IS an actual history of gun control agendas being laid out and enacted prior to mass governmental control programs in other countries. That is not a fake concept. Furthermore, to set the scene, the Constitution of the United States was very clear that the idea of living under tyranny by any Government foreign or domestic was a non-starter. THAT is the essence of the Second Amendment. It is not about hunting. It is not necessarily about personal self defense. But there can be NO DOUBT, that the roots of the 2nd Amendment lie in the desire to never be tyrannically governed again.
So to the heart of the question: Why are gun registries scary, undesirable and looked at with disdain in the firearms community.
The idea that a government that could enact a law that would take away guns, would also have a list of where each type and specific gun was at, at the time it enacted such a law, makes it easy to take those guns away by force. Even worse, if a tyranny were being established these confiscations could be done under the cloak of secrecy, by heavily armed special policing units and a government could take away guns from those it suspected to be the largest threat easily, without the mainstream public being aware of it.
So, while this sounds far-fetched currently, even for many of those who believe the new 2021 administration is a death knell for gun ownership, the conspiracy of it all is not that far fetched. It’s not beneath a government to take away guns before they enact more mainstream regulations. It happened in Russia, Germany, Cambodia, Cuba, and other places at some level prior to harsher restrictions being enacted. Not all of these were massive gun control initiatives, not all of them were solely done by dictators or leadership, sometimes they were conveniently done already as the leaders came online. In Cambodia, the french had helped to remove civilian arms before Pol Pot arrived in power, for example.
Let’s be clear – it’s not our position that the USA is in a Nazi Germany position. We aren’t claiming that this is happening here in the United States. Simply, we are stating that it HAS happened.
What is clear in our founding documents is that the people should be fearful of those that would wish to govern them on a large scale. They should have the means to protect against a government gaining such power. They should be wary about allowing any type of intelligence or program that allows for easy removal or restriction of these arms.
Conclusions
Why is it scary to have registration schemes? Because it could allow for a very easy way for a tyrannical government to remove guns. Domestically that would be a tyrannical government that forms over time with help from the people they govern. In the case of a foreign power, the information is still dangerous. A strategic takeover by another country might be able to use that registration information to great detriment as well if they manage to gain a foothold in the United States during a war or prolonged invasion, etc.
To be clear: we are not saying this is realistic, on the horizon, or even possible. We are saying that the reason people fear registration of firearms is primarily because of these reasons. Whether that makes sense, is for you to decide.
The bottom line: it has happened before, the threat of tyranny, and thus, it, like gun culture is ingrained in the American DNA. There really is a reason for fear like this.