You can’t confiscate guns unless you know who owns them. For decades, liberals and gun control advocates have demanded a federal database that would give them this information. Well, it’s finally happening.
A bill recently passed by lawmakers requires that the names of all gun owners in the state of Hawaii be entered into an FBI database that would immediately notify police if anyone on the list gets arrested.
To add insult to injury, the cost to enter all these names will be covered by the gun owners (which doens’t make sense at all, considering the gun owners are not the only one who will suposedly benefit from the databse).
“Hawaii looks like it is about to provide the federal government with the list of all the gun owners in the state. Supposedly, keeping a list of gun owners’ names will enable the FBI to tell police if a gun owner ever gets arrested,” reports Fox News.
Gun control advocates argue that such a system will help solve crime by enabling police to track criminals by guns left behind at the scene of the crime – but criminals rarely leave their guns behind if they leave the scene alive. And if they do, it’s usually a stolen gun registered to someone else.
There is virtually no evidence that gun databases reduce crime or help police find criminals. Even so, supporters claim the “groundbreaking” law would make Hawaii a leader in gun safety. Others rightly argue that they should not have to be on an FBI list to practice a constitutional right.
“I don’t like the idea of us being entered into a database,” says Jerry Ilo, a hunting and firearm instructor for the state of Hawaii. “It basically tells us that they know where the guns are, they can go grab them. We get the feeling Big Brother is watching us.”
“You’re curtailing that right (Second Amendment) by requiring that a name be entered into a database without doing anything wrong,” says Kenneth Lawson of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law.
The bill, introduced by Senator Will Espero (D-HI), will undergo a legal review process before Hawaii Governor David Ige decides whether or not to sign it into law. Unfortunately, most legal experts agree that the bill would hold up in court. California law professor David Levine notes that recent Supreme Court rulings have supported a state’s ability to regulate gun sales.
Meanwhile, Hawaiian gun owners’ worst nightmare is about to come true: Obama will know the who, where, and when of every gun in Hawaii – enough information for him (or his successor) to seize them. “This is an extremely dangerous bill. Exercising a constitutional right is not inherently suspicious,” warns NRA member Amy Hunter. “Hawaii will now be treating firearms as suspect and subject to constant monitoring.
Espero’s bill is a huge step forward for Obama’s dream of creating a national gun registry, and many fear that Hawaii’s move will be the catalyst that leads to a nationwide database. Americans in Connecticut, California, New York, and Chicago have already seen how registration can be a slippery slope to the confiscation of guns.
Editor’s note: As stated above, there is no real reason to keep this database except in the fantasy the Democrats seem to have of one day confiscating all guns. The big problem is, like every other database the government runs, eventually the database will get stolen. Then criminals will know which houses do not have guns.