Illinois Gov to close gun show loophole, maintain database of gun buyers
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will sign legislation today requiring background checks for all gun buyers, closing what law enforcement advocates see as a back door for illegal purchases of firearms.
I strongly support full background checks for all individuals interested in owning a firearm. Each state should have clear guidelines on who is eligible to purchase a firearm and each gun owner should be required to register his/her gun with the states. With current technology, the waiting period that an individual must endure can and should be reduced. A background check is not an overly burdensome violation of privacy rights for the purchase of a firearm.
A second bill, which Gov. Blagojevich plans to veto, will allow the state to maintain, indefinitely, a state database that contains records of all gun purchases in the state.
On this issue, I share the concern of the NRA (never thought I’d write that phrase) that the maintenance of a state database with information on all gun purchases infringes on the privacy rights of legal gun owners. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and others have long campaigned for a bill to allow the state to maintain this data in an effort to prevent gun runners and gangs from purchasing weapons. However, an effort to prevent a few individuals from purchasing a quantity of firearms is not a compelling reason to maintain a database of all background checks.
Neither proposal is going to keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. Closing the gun show loophole will help to keep guns away from gangs and dealers. However, in maintaining, indefinitely, a database on all gun purchases, the state is overstepping its authority and infringing upon the rights of law abiding citizens.
posted by Unknown @ 12:16 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Ted,
I am the more pro gun rights of the two of us here at TYL, so let me see if I can answer why a gun owners database is a bad idea.
Really, it comes down to the potential for abuse. I don't want the police to come knocking on my door everytime a 9mm is used in a crime just because they know I own a 9mm. Would they actually do that? Unlikely. But they could. In fact, they could use my gun ownership for many kinds of profiling. But just becaue I own a handgun (I don't, btw) shouldn't put me under any more suspission than anyone else. Particularly when you consider that a large number of gun crimes are committed with illegally obtained guns. And, think of this, what if I were black or Muslim and owned a gun and the police could find that out. There is serious potential for harrassment.
The fear or threat that I would be under greater suspission simply for owning a gun would put a chilling effect on the whole right to own a gun. Constitutionally, the government can't infringe on my right to own a gun, and yet a permanent database would have that effect.
Also, the 2nd Ammendment was written out of a desire to prevent the government from taking away people's guns. Remember, one of the actions that put the spark to the Revolution powder keg was when the Brits started stealing the Colonists armaments and gun powder. A gun owners list would make it really easy for the government to find and take people's guns away (as conspiratorial as it sounds, it's not out of the realm of possibility if a city were under some sort of emergency)
You probably find all this logic to be a little suspect, but it really comes down to how important you hold the Second Amendment. I find it interesting that many of those who scream bloody murder everytime the 1st or 4th Amendment is stepped on are often silent when the same happens to the 2nd (the reverse of that is also true, I am aware)
I used to be very, very anti-gun until I studied the issue much more in depth and studied the Constitution much more closely. Now I am fairly libertarian about guns. I know my position is definitely a good deal to the right of center and would probably offend the sensibilites of many of my fellow Centrists, but it is an informed opinion that I did not arive at lightly. It is also a matter I feel could use more honest public debate. There is too much rigidity from both the pro and anti-gun lobbies (ah, see, there I sound like a Centrist again).
The other issue here is that the data kept is not simply a registry of who owns what type of gun. Information from the background check is kept with it.... This is more than simply a gun registry - which I really don't have much of a problem with, though Alan may.
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