Pennsylvania Considers Gun Registration Scheme

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For a lot of gun owners, there’s one thing that will draw a line in the sand, the line that will force them to cross from law-abiding citizen to criminal. It’s gun registration. They will refuse to register any or all of their firearms with the government.

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Registration sets the stage for confiscation, and you can’t confiscate something if you don’t know where it is.

Despite that, gun registration is still very popular with anti-gunners. They’re not pushing it as hard as they’d like, mostly because they know it’s unpopular with everyone else, but it’s still out there for them.

In Pennsylvania, pro-gun activists don’t have to worry about it in some far-off future. They have to worry about it now.

A bill that would require mandatory gun registration is currently making its way through the Pennsylvania Assembly. House Bill 768, if passed, would require gun owners to register their firearms with the Pennsylvania State Police.

Part of the registration process would include filling out an application that included:

Name, age, sex and date of birth
• Personal and business addresses
• Telephone number
• Social security number
• Citizenship status
• Make, model, caliber/gauge, type and serial number of each firearm
• Two photographs taken within 30 days immediately prior to the date of filing the application equivalent to passport size showing the full face, head and shoulders of the applicant in a clear and distinguishing manner
• Fingerprints

The application will be approved or denied within 30 days. If approved, a certificate will be provided to the gun owner, who is expected to carry the piece of paper with the firearm at all times. Police would also be allowed to stop people and ask gun owners if he or she is carrying their certificate with them.

Each firearm certificate would need to be renewed on an annual basis.

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So not just will guns be registered, but you’ll have to ask for permission to own a firearm? Yeah, can’t imagine why gun owners might have an issue with this one.

As Townhall‘s Beth Baumann notes, most gun owners will comply because they’re law-abiding citizens. She’s not wrong.

But there will be many who will see something like this as going way too far. We all know that registration leads to confiscation. When there’s no way the government knows who has what, we know it’s impractical to go door to door looking for who might have guns. There’s safety in anonymity. For many, they’re going to hold onto that safety as long as they can, even if they become criminals in the process.

The truth is that any man can become a criminal if they’re pushed too far. This is going to do just that.

Luckily, it’s not law. It can be stopped. It needs to be stopped. Activists in Pennsylvania need to step up and fight back. They need to make their voices heard so lawmakers know that this is a bad idea and that the voters of the state oppose this. Don’t be stupid. Don’t make threats or anything like that. Just be firm in your opposition.

Maybe this idiocy can be turned before it’s too late.

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