Why would registration lead to ban? Your 2nd amendment argument will never end. There is no way you guys can get gun ownership banned. And that is what I don't get, the fearmongering when gun registration is mentioned.
I am asking the gun owners to be responsible owners. Drunk drivers shoukd be banned from driving, period. But that is an entirely different matter.
You're not thinking like the bureaucrats who run this country. They can ban certain varieties of firearms, or they can ban the magazines. Or set stupid limits. The New York SAFE act is the most recent example of this. In a radio interview released before it passed, Governor Cuomo actually said "confiscation could be an option", with respect to his re-definition of "assault weapon" (which included a lot of regular pistols actually). He's also wants to allow 10 round magazines, but only allow 7 rounds to be loaded at any given time. Thankfully this law is now facing massive popular protest, but he's far from the only one who thinks like this.
New Jersey is another example, where there's a mandatory minimum 6-month prison sentence for ANY firearm related crime, whether it be murder or transporting an unloaded firearm without a case. In one case a man got 7 years for "unlawful possession" due to a bias judge, and was only saved by a gubernatorial pardon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Aitken
The 2nd amendment is like having a tenured position. You may not be able to be directly fired, but your life can be made miserable to the point where you wish you were.
If registration is allowed to go ahead, all it will lead to is de-facto bans in many areas. There is a sizable anti-gun movement in the US, and there are numerous examples of elected officials literally not knowing how guns mechanically work. One Colorado assembly-woman recently revealed in a public meeting that she thought magazines were one-time-use and disposable. She thought that if we banned high capacity magazines, eventually they'd all be shot and the supply would disappear!
Bottom line, the government by-and-large cannot be trusted to objectively safeguard gun rights or the 2nd amendment, or most other rights for that matter; and even if licensing were required, you think the criminals are going to get licensed?
I agree that gun owners should be held to a higher level of responsibility, and honestly I wouldn't mind something like a one-time-license good for all guns, where you take, say a 1-week course in general firearms safety/law, with range time, and then you can own whatever you want for life and carry them anywhere. That way the license doesn't stipulate what firearms you own, and it holds people to a higher level of commitment.
I'd also end the drug war and eliminate parole for violent felons, but then again I'm an engineer, not a politician.
😛
