The Gun Registration Lie

While flipping through radio channels in the car the other day, I came across a recorded interview of John Fogerty talking about his 1970 hit song "Run Through the Jungle." The artist was explaining the common misconception that the song was a protest against the Vietnam war.

I think a lot of people thought that because of the times, but I was talking about America and the proliferation of guns, registered and otherwise. I'm a hunter and I'm not antigun, but I just thought that people were so gun-happy -- and there were so many guns uncontrolled that it really was dangerous, and it's even worse now.

This quote is from the 1993 interview Fogerty did with the Los Angeles Times. Despite the quote being 18 years old, I was struck how the same meme is repeated still today, by the clueless and the dishonest.

What would be the purpose of gun registration? It has but one purpose, and that is the government-sponsored confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. Criminals won't register their guns, so those weapons won't be trackable. Tracking a gun after a crime is committed doesn't help the victim in any event.

In 1968 the anti-gun politicians in the Great Britain instituted gun registration. The lie told to sportsman, and hunters like Fogerty, was that the data would never be used to confiscate sporting guns. However in 1988 the government knew exactly where to go when they decided to confiscate all rifles. And then in 1997 they confiscated all hand guns. In both instances only law abiding and honest citizens were affected. Did Great Britain become a safer place? No. In fact, crime increased as citizens were disarmed and criminals continued their ways. Today we see the results of these misguided policies. Private citizens stand by helplessly while rioting thugs loot and destroy private property. The criminals still have their weapons, but a defenseless British population rolls over. There's no reason to think the same thing won't happen here. The Brits have no monopoly on dishonest politicians, or gullible citizens.

Today we see the same push for registration in the U.S. under the guise of "common-sense gun control." Only a dishonest politician uses this ploy. Only an uninformed citizen believes it.

It was not that long ago that President Obama spewed forth with his own plans for gun control: "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."