[ A Must Read that should be forwarded to all Freedom Lovers. ]
National Gun Registration - Paving the Road to Tyranny
Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D. Friday, Aug. 31, 2001
Georg Hegel (1770-1831), the father of dialectical idealism, which Karl Marx
transmogrified and misappropriated as dialectical materialism, lamented that
what we learn from history is that man does not learn its lessons! Despite
what we have learned about the deleterious effects of draconian gun control
in other countries, particularly during the last bloody century, politicians
with authoritarian leanings, mostly Democrats but also some Republicans,
continue to beat the drums calling for more gun control. Gun control features
prominently in the police state designs of totalitarian states with which any
student of history is familiar. Take for instance:
Federalization of the police force with a vast network of surveillance and
informants to spy on citizens.
National identification cards for all citizens.
Civilian disarmament via gun registration, licensing, followed by banning and
confiscation of firearms. Once this mechanism of oppression is firmly in
place, persecution and elimination of political opponents follows, and every
social, political and economic policy the Total State desires can be
implemented. This has happened in National Socialist states such as Nazi
Germany, Fascist states such as Italy under Mussolini, and Communist powers
such as the former Soviet Union (and its satellites behind the Iron Curtain)
and Red China.
It is therefore astonishing and disturbing Americans have been assailed in
the last several years by politicians putting forth dangerous proposals
leading to the construction of the type of freedom-eroding scaffold which is
anathema to the individual liberties our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us as
responsible citizens capable of self-governance.
Construction of this scaffold reaching up to an authoritarian tower is the
case with several bills that were introduced in Congress in 2000, all of
which could be reintroduced in this Congress, requiring that all "qualifying
firearms" in the hands of law-abiding citizens be registered. One of them is
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's, D-Calif., bill, S-2525, also sponsored by Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
This dangerous proposal requires that all persons be fingerprinted, licensed
with passport-size photographs, and forced to reveal certain personal
information as conditions for licensure. As the measure itself elaborates,
"It is in the national interest and within the role of the federal government
to ensure that the regulation of firearms is uniform among the states, that
law enforcement can quickly and effectively trace firearms used in crime, and
that firearms owners know to use and safely store their firearms."
Another such bill is that proposed by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., S-2099,
mandating gun owners to, likewise, register their firearms (in essence,
establish a national gun registry), and treats handguns, for purposes of
federal statue, like machine guns, short barrel shotguns, grenades and other
specialized weapons. It gives gun owners one year to register all handguns.
This will be effected by a vigorous public campaign funded by the taxpayers,
as is already the case in Canada today.
The Canadian experience itself is instructive. Lorne Gunter, in the Edmonton
Journal (Oct. 13, 2000), reveals the Canadian Outreach program to register
all gun owners is falling short. The result and cost of this Outreach
campaign not only has failed to bring in the expected 1.4 million gun owners
(to only one-third of that, 486,000), but it has exceeded the projected price
tag. The latest estimates project the cost of the registry from December 1998
through March 2001 at $600 million, seven times the original estimate of $85
million," Gunter wrote.
Americans, and now Canadians, have pointed out that rather than helping track
criminals and their guns as claimed, registration of firearms is dangerous to
the liberties of law-abiding citizens, and as we shall see, counterproductive
against criminals.
Gun Registration and Tyranny
Unbeknownst to many Americans, who having seen and experienced mostly the
goodness of America, gun registration is the gateway to civilian disarmament,
which often precedes genocide. In the monumental book "Lethal Laws,"
published by Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, we learn that
authoritarian governments that conducted genocide and mass killings of their
own populations, first disarmed their citizens. The recipe for accomplishing
this goal went as follows: demonizing of guns, registration, then banning and
confiscation, and finally total civilian disarmament. Enslavement of the
people then followed with limited resistance, as was the case in Nazi
Germany, the Soviet Union, Red China, Cuba and other totalitarian regimes of
the 20th century. Adolf Hitler encapsulated the deceptive intent of this type
of legislation stating while addressing the Reichstag on April 15, 1935:
"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation
has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more
efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" What German
civilian disarmament portended was a descent into barbarism!
Frequently, when presented with these deadly chronicles and the perilous
historic sequence - namely, that gun registration is followed by banning,
confiscation, civilian disarmament and, ultimately, by authoritarianism -
naïve Americans opine that it cannot happen here.
As to the dangers of licensing of gun owners and registration of firearms,
they frequently retort, "If you don't have anything to hide, then you don't
have anything to fear!" Followed by, "I see nothing wrong with gun
registration because we have to do something; there are just too many guns
out there that fall into the wrong hands." This is not only a naïve but also
a dangerous attitude because governments have a penchant to accrue power at
the expense of the liberties of individual citizens. Civilian disarmament is
not only dangerous to one's liberties but also counterproductive in achieving
safety.
This has been further attested by two other great books. One is University of
Hawaii professor R.J. Rummel's "Death by Government" (1994). The other book
is Stéphane Courtois' "The Black Book of Communism" (1999). These books make
it clear authoritarianism and totalitarianism are dangerous to the health of
humanity. During the 20th century, an excess of 100 million people were
killed by their own governments bent on destroying liberty and building
socialism and collectivism.
Our Founding Fathers recognized the danger of tyranny. Thomas Jefferson had
admonished us long ago, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
I can personally testify that when Cubans lost their guns in 1959, they also
lost their ability to regain freedom. Thus today, Cubans on the other side of
the Florida Strait remain enslaved in what was supposed to have been the
dream of a socialist utopia, the ultimate Caribbean Worker's Paradise. What
they ended up with was the nightmare of a police state in a communist island
prison.
Although with the new administration in Washington, registration may not be a
politically viable option, other freedom-eroding measures remain a real
concern, particularly if they continue to be passed, hidden in the voluminous
legislation passed by Congress year after year. Americans must remain
informed and vigilant to preserve their sacred tradition and their liberties
and prevent enactment of piecemeal gun control legislation, e.g., closing of
gun shows with burdensome regulations, rationing lawful gun purchases, and
the banning of the importation of certain magazines and firearm accessories,
etc. Gun control should be directed against criminals and felons, and should
best be referred to as crime control rather than gun control.
Registration and the Law
Another fact Americans need to understand is that registration is directed to
law-abiding citizens, not criminals. Not only do convicted criminals by
definition fail to obey the law, but they are constitutionally protected
against any registration requirement. In Haynes vs. United States, the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1968 ruled 7-1 that compelling registration by those who may
not lawfully possess firearms amounts to a violation of the Fifth Amendment's
proscription against forced self-incrimination. In other words, the court
said that if someone "realistically can expect that registration [of a
firearm] will substantially increase the likelihood of his prosecution," the
registration requirement is unconstitutional.
Astonishingly as it may sound, some courts have ruled that registration of
firearms only applies to lawful citizens, not to felons. This has been
pointed out by Legal scholar Don B. Kates in "Firearms and Violence - Issues
of Public Policy" (1984; pp. 14-21) mentioning, for example, the Kastigar vs.
United States, 406 U.S. 441 (1972) decision. Does exemption of felons from
gun registration sound irrational? It certainly does! Were gun registration
to be implemented in the United States, criminals and felons could very well
not be expected to register their weapons, since they are already felons
proscribed from legally owning firearms. Requiring them to register their
guns, some courts may opine, would necessarily incriminate them, and this
would violate their Fifth Amendment rights.
Although with the new administration in Washington, registration may not be a
politically viable option, other freedom-eroding measures remain a real
concern, particularly if they continue to be passed, hidden in the voluminous
legislation passed by Congress year after year. Americans must remain
informed and vigilant to preserve their sacred tradition and their liberties
and prevent enactment of piecemeal gun control legislation, e.g., closing of
gun shows with burdensome regulations, rationing lawful gun purchases, and
the banning of the importation of certain magazines and firearm accessories,
etc. Gun control should be directed against criminals and felons, and should
best be referred to as crime control rather than gun control.
In short, with the historically crucial and potentially fatal issue of
progressive civilian disarmament, perhaps, we should once again summon the
words of our wise Founders; this time those echoed by Jefferson's fellow
Virginian, Richard Henry Lee ("Letters from the Federal Farmer," 1788): "To
preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always
possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
Yes, the easiest way to enslave citizens is to disarm them.
Dr. Miguel A. Faria Jr. is the editor-in-chief of Medical Sentinel, the
official journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons,
author of "Vandals at the Gates of Medicine: Historic Perspectives on the
Battle Over Health Care Reform" (1995) and "Medical Warrior: Fighting
Corporate Socialized Medicine" (Macon, Ga., Hacienda Publishing Inc., 1997).
He is a contributor to NewsMax.com and a columnist for LaNuevaCuba.com.
Advance copies of his book, "Cuba in Revolution - Escape From a Lost
Paradise," will be available in the fall 2001. http://www.haciendapub.com.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/8/31/200747.shtml
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