Gun Shop Burglary Pokes Holes In Registration Schemes

AP Photo/Andrew Selsky

When candidate Joe Biden was running for president, his platform included language heavy on restricting the civil rights of citizens and advocated for strict and onerous provisions to become the law of the land. Now President Biden seems to be stalling a bit when it comes to what might be realistic (or legal), as well as what can be accomplished with a divided legislature versus things he can do through executive overreach. One of the many things candidate Biden advocated for was registration of different classes of firearms and magazines along with stiff tax burdens on law abiding citizens.

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Both the constitutionality and effectiveness of firearm registration schemes needs to be called into question.  Esteemed firearm attorney and civil rights advocate Evan Nappen from New Hampshire and New Jersey, constantly reminds the public at large, and more recently in his podcast, that:

Legislation, then registration. Then comes confiscation and after that extermination.  And those are the four words that all go together when dealing with gun registration.

Nappen does not mince words when it comes to what he means by this, specifically citing the Holocaust as one of the prime examples of how gun registration was misused.  And the examples do not stop with the events that unfolded during World War II.

Take a recent report from Tucson, Arizona concerning a gun shop that had 22 firearms stolen.

The Tucson Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are offering a reward for information in a gun store burglary.

On the morning of Feb. 10, 2021, the Frontier Gun Store located at 3156 E. Grant Road was burglarized, according to ATF. Officers responded to the store, where it was discovered that 22 firearms were stolen.

Authorities say the stolen firearms are various types of calibers.

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How does Joe Biden’s plan on making firearm registration a federal law or policy do anything to curb crime or violence? Well, the simple answer is that it doesn’t do anything of the sort. This event in Tucson exhibits that if there were a registration scheme in place that there would still be 22 unregistered and unaccounted for firearms hitting the streets, presumably in the hands of illicit buyers.

When criminal acts are being committed, all a registration does is create a burden on the law-abiding citizen.  mandatory registrations in states like Massachusetts and New Jersey certainly haven’t done anything to curb violence. To boot, Biden’s gun ban plan further includes a $200 tax (per item) to exercise a right. Not only is the scheme unconstitutional and akin to a poll tax, it further creates a gap between the haves and have-nots. Simply put, Biden’s policy would have a much greater impact on the 99% of us, while leaving the wealthiest 1% largely untouched. What that means to his constituent base is for them to decide, but this policy along with many others will adversely affect those in a lower socio-economic class, and all Americans.

As those 22 firearms, which have yet to be recovered, everyone should be asking President Biden how exactly his proposed polices make anyone any safer when the criminal element simply ignores all laws.

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John Petrolino is a US Merchant Marine Officer, writer, author of “Decoding Firearms: An Easy to Read Guide on General Gun Safety & Use” and NRA certified pistol, rifle and shotgun instructor living under and working to change New Jersey’s draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. You can find him on the web at www.johnpetrolino.com on twitter at @johnpetrolino and on instagram @jpetrolinoiii

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