Have you ever heard of a stolen Danielle Steele novel being used to commit a carjacking?

[f_townsend]

I haven't. But that's the question you should ask anti-gun-registration gun fanatics when they proclaim that "The Government" requiring firearms be registered by serial number would be the "same thing" as the government requiring people to officially register what kinds of books they are reading or have read.

Go ahead -- ask these self-proclaimed experts and proponents of the Second Amendment and the Constitution about any known occasions when a copy of a Nora Roberts or John Grisham novel was stolen from a car's glove compartment and was then later used to hold up and shoot a clerk in a convenience store, or to kill some innocent person during a carjacking, or to blow a police officer's brains out who responded to a call.

However, I have heard of countless thousands of times when a handgun stolen from a car was used to commit a violent and usually fatal crime.

I have also heard of many times when a stolen gun's registration information helped law enforcement put away a criminal who would ordinarily have continued to kill innocent people with the stolen gun.

We don't know how many crimes have been averted by requiring gun owners to register their firearms -- probably untold thousands of crimes have been averted because the very act of firearm registration served as a vital incentive for gun owners to make absolutely sure their guns were secure from theft and "loss" (i.e. illicit sales and trades).

[NickB79]

1. I'm trying to figure out what you're proposing

Because legally ALL firearms have to have a serial number that's documented on the 4473 background check form during sale. Biden's legislative action on ghost guns shut down the last avenue to legally have non-serialized guns. And law enforcement has access to these records if needed, as they must be retained for decades. Private sales that don't go through a licensed dealer don't need to do such documentation though.

But only a few states have a separate registration list for firearms, and that's primarily handguns.

Federal law actually prohibits the federal government from nationwide registration of firearms, as part of the compromise that got nationwide background checks in the first place in the late 1980's.

So are you proposing we attempt to overturn that law?

[f_townsend]

2. Yours' is a typically passive-aggressive way gun fanatics "debate"

First: put words in someone else's mouth. In this case, imply that I stated, when I never did, that I am in favor of overturning that federal law on background checks

Then: argue the point as though I actually said as much

There was no "proposal" in my post, only ridicule, directed at gun fanatics who want all gun registration records to be ruled unconstitutional.

At least you were honest enough to mention the crucial fact that private sales bypass registration checks. But you didn't mention how the Tiahrt Amendment prohibits gun registration information from being used in civil lawsuits against gun sellers who don't give a crap who buys their guns.