Background Checks
It seems reasonable that background checks be required before someone be allowed to buy something as dangerous as a gun, right?
That may make perfect sense until you start thinking about who decides exactly what the qualifications are. Star Parker reminds us that in our own recent history Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws were used to disqualify blacks from owning guns, simply because they were black.
There are reports that the ATF has been going into gun shops and making copies of the background check forms, effectively (and illegally) building up a gun registry database.
Shouldn't known terrorists be denied guns? In a video interview (which has been purged from the internet after this article was originally writter), border security agent Julia Davis estimates that 90% of Americans would qualify as a terrorist, if someone in government decided they didn't like them. She should know; DHS named her as a Domestic Terrorist. A swat team was sent to her home, she was arrested twice, supporters died mysteriously, and she was persecuted far beyond anything anyone could possibly believe were it not for the fact that she has been able to document everything so well. Her crime? She "made derogatory statements" about DHS by alerting the FBI (because no other agency was available) about a major security lapse she encountered while on her job.
Currently, the government is considering weakening doctor/patient privacy laws to allow background checks to find cases of treatment for mental problems. There have already been thousands of veterans who have lost their gun right because of a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis. Some argue that even mentioning to your doctor that you are "stressed" could, in some cases, land you on a no-gun list.
The problem isn't that it's a bad idea to keep guns away from people who are incompetent or criminals; the problem is that it needs to be done right, otherwise the bulk of the weapons will be taken away from competent, law-abiding citizens. And it rarely, if ever, gets done right. Even today, there are hundreds of thousands of names on the current NICS list that shouldn't be there, but can't be removed.
And guess what? The Justice Department has said that background checks won't be effective until national gun registration is in place. That's obviously phase 2.
