WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Senator Proposes National Handgun Registration Stephan Archer Saturday, Aug. 26, 2000 Having a familiar ring to the "voluntary" income tax forms Americans fill out each April, gun control advocates are proposing a new bill that would force gun owners to fill out a registration form and pay a fee for all handguns in their possession. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., introduced the Handgun Safety and Registration Act <http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/24/83341>, or S.2099, because "the police should not be limited in their ability to track down criminals." Reed is confident his bill will be approved either by this Congress or the next. If the bill passes, all handgun owners in the United States would be required to obtain a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms registration form and FBI fingerprint form FD-258, either from their local chief law enforcement officer, by mail from the BATF, at a U.S. Post Office or from a regional BATF/Treasury Department facility. On the registration form, the registrant must affix a 2x2 inch photograph of himself taken within the last year. The completed form is must then be taken to the chief law enforcement officer, who then completes the "Law Enforcement Certification" portion of the form. The fingerprint card form must also be completed with the assistance of a person qualified to do so, and a check for $5 must be made out to the BATF. All completed forms and tax payments are then mailed to the BATF. Under the bill, a $50 tax would also be imposed on the making of all handguns. It is most likely this cost would also trickle down to the gun buyer. Currently, only owners of machine guns, short-barrel shotguns and short-barrel rifles, silencers, bombs, grenades and other specialized weapons have to go through this procedure as is required by the 1934 National Firearms Act. However, if S.2099 passes, handguns will become an additional item of the NFA. In an effort to assist law enforcement agencies with their ability to track down criminals who use handguns, the bill, introduced Feb. 24, would also create an online database of all registered owners. However, the bill doesn't take into account all the nonregistered gun owners – namely, criminals – who won't be part of the database. Thus, the effectiveness of the online system is in serious question. John Velleco, a spokesman for Gun Owners of America, told NewsMax.com it is a scary notion to think the government would have online information for all registered gun owners nationwide, because it is those who register their weapons who are the upstanding citizens. He believes the bill won't pass. "Even if it was a Democratic Congress, it would be almost impossible to pass this," Velleco said. "The scary thing is, every once in a while, lightning does strike and something like this can just be tacked onto a 'must pass' appropriations bill. Then suddenly, we wake up in a different country." But although the effectiveness of the bill and its survival in Congress are in serious question, Reed believes it will work. "This bill will limit criminals' access to guns. Background checks will finally be performed on all handgun sales," Reed said. "Before a handgun owner sells a gun without registering it, they will be forced to think hard about the crime they are about to commit and the 10 years they may spend in prison." Sarah Brady, who chairs Handgun Control Inc., thinks it is about time Congress considered legislation such as S.2099. Her husband, Jim Brady, was seriously wounded by a gunshot wound to the head in March 1981 when John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Brady was the White House press secretary. "For far too long in America, too many gun crimes have gone unsolved, and murderers are getting away with murder because law enforcement doesn't have a clear paper trail to follow," Brady said. "Requiring handguns to be registered – like we register cars – would help law enforcement officers do their jobs, solving crimes." Commenting on Brady's statement, Velleco said he thinks it is absurd to compare guns and cars because unlike gun registration, which is a crime-fighting device, car registration is a revenue-making law that helps maintain America's roads. He also told NewsMax.com that any kind of gun registration would be "ludicrous because it's predicated on the assumption that the criminals are going to register their guns." Velleco added that if gun control advocates truly want to treat guns like cars, everyone would be able to buy a gun, just like anybody can go buy a car. One only has to license and register a car if people decide to drive the vehicle on a public road or highway. Hence, Velleco suggested a similar solution with guns. If people want to carry a concealed weapon in public, that, like licenses to drive a car in public, should be registered. However, if people opt to keep a gun in the house, nobody – not even the government – needs to know about it. In praise of the online system the bill would create, Kristen Rand, director of federal policy at the Violence Policy Center, said, "Sen. Reed's legislation brings a complicated and cumbersome handgun tracing system out of the dark ages and into the 21st century with instant online access." Velleco suggested the current handgun tracking system could be complicated, but added: "Freedom should be very uncomplicated. As a citizen, you should be able to go buy a gun, just like you go buy a car or buy a television. You don't need to ask Janet Reno's or Bill Clinton's permission to buy anything else." Summing up what he believes to be the real agenda of this bill and similar bills proposed by gun control advocates, Velleco said, "The situation here is that you have zealous, extremist, freedom-hating radicals who don't want and don't think that citizens should own guns. Period. "They can masquerade it as waiting periods and background checks and registration, but the bottom line is they hate guns. They think the government knows what is best for people, and they want to create a situation that would have been odious to the Founding Fathers in that only the people that work for the government have the guns." *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! ****************************************************************************** ******************* A vote for Bush or Gore is a vote to continue Clinton policies! A vote for Buchanan is a vote to continue America! Therefore a vote for Gore or Bush is a wasted vote for America! Don't waste your vote! Vote for Patrick Buchanan! Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party system is a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey... 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