1) In response to my assertion that "gun registration is unconstitutional because it provides the means for disarmment of the militia by the federal military."
Robert Wooley replied "That seems awfully tenuous. The most you can say is that it might make such disarmament less difficult. Are you willing to generalize and say that any legislation that plausibly could make federal disarmament of state militias less difficult is per se unconstitutional, no matter what other beneficial (and constitutional) effects such legislation may have? "
2) Lacking a specific proposal from Mr Wooley (including a description of its beneficial effects) I would have to answer yes.
As I noted earlier, the creation and continued survival of the American republic has been largely due to the widespread ownership of unregistered firearms by the common citizens. Our history --vice the history of other nations -- shows that the mere existence of the militia deters the secret conspiracies/coups which have overthrown lawful governments in many other countries.
As I also noted, the militia's UNIQUE virtue in protecting the Constitution lies in the fact that it cannot be captured or disarmed suddenly by a secret plot. Due to the Cold War, the Congress has given the President almost dictatorial powers in a national emergency-- subject only to review by Congress every six months. If a President used a national emergency as a pretext to disarm the militia, the vast majority of citizens could respond by simply hiding their unregistered firearms while taking the necessary time to organize for resistance and seeing what further developments arose.
Once firearms are registered ,however, confiscation becomes extremely easily. Few citizens would resist once the federal records made arrest and imprisonment a certainty. The few who did not comply could easily be dealt with later.
Once the militia is disarmed, the American people have no more control over their fate than ,say, the Jews at Auschwitz.
3) I can think of no beneficial effects from registration will would outweigh its great harm. Besides, any beneficial effects could be accomplished by other, better means. The NRA has cooperated with instant check --verifying that a gun buyer is not a felon. A superior method to this would be to issue lawful citizens with an annual id card containing their picture and thumbprint, but with no name or identifying information. Anyone producing such a chit could purchase firearms from a dealer with no records kept. The government would be required to issue such a chit to any citizen requesting it who passed a criminal records check. This method would prevent the Executive Branch from using unconstitutional means to create a registration database -- as occurred when Janet Reno broke the law and recorded the Instacheck records.
4) I would note in passing that gun control advocates have not shown much intelligence in predicting or managing the consequences of their proposals -- which suggests they are not competent to make public policy.
The most casual study will show a strong linkage between homicides and poverty, lack of economic opportunity, neglect of poor neighborhoods by governments strapped for money, etc. Gun control advocates have repeatedly alienated blue collar workers who are a major base in the Democratic Party and , consequently, the gun control movement has dragged the Democratic Party over the cliff in the last 5 national elections. This has had numerous malign effects --including greatly increased poverty and a rise in the conditions that cause homicides. *********** Don Williams; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
