Registration of all handguns.

[apocalypsehow]

28. Now you shift the goalposts.

"But the auto registration argument does fall apart."

No, it doesn't.

"Trying to force people to pay annual taxes or fees on guns is just going to result in massive non-compliance"

Then I guess there's going to be some law-abiding gun owners who are going to have to decide whether they wish to remain "law-abiding" or not - just like a lot of Southern school boards had to decide whether they were going to remain law-abiding after Brown v. Board. And we all know how THAT ended up: those "standing in the schoolhouse door" on the wrong side of history are long gone, just like the pro-NRA arguments will be history within a generation. Your grandchildren, and mine, will live in a United States with Australian/Canadian/Western European-style gun laws - and we can all be thankful for it.

"The proposals for massive annual fees and certificates that must be kept with the weapon at all times are just a method to price people out of owning guns. Making ownership financially painful is really a backdoor method of confiscation as people on hard times or the poor (a lot of rural people) would have to give them up. And the certificate idea would require that certificate to be presented to purchase ammo, but you have to have it with the gun at all times."

And?

"What I want to get across is that if you just want registration to track handguns, that is simple to do. If you want to punish lawful owners and force them top get rid of their guns, then the fees and taxes are the way to go. But don't act they are radical if they oppose a $100 per gun/year fee."

I don't think they're "radical," just misguided. And I'm not looking to "punish" anyone. I think registration is a sensible measure, and I would base the registration fee - the "tag" if you will - upon the type of firearm, just like most states do on the age of a vehicle. For instance, shotguns, hunting rifles, and plinking pistols - anything less than .25 caliber - would face the lowest registration fee in a graduated system. The fees would rise from there, depending on the make and model of the firearm, and a formula to determine it's utility in civilian hands. Civilians who want to tote around military-grade weaponry should pay more for the privilege of getting to act out their Red Dawn daydreams.

Besides which, this is a one-time fee, upon transfer of ownership, unlike the annual "tag" fee, so gun owners (like myself) would be getting off easy in the pocketbook compared to tagging and insuring cars every year. If one can't afford to be playing around with guns and these modest fees would tax a few Bobo's out of the AR-15 totin' market, that's just too bad. A lot of us who'd like to drive a Mercedes or BMW don't get that privilege either, but have to settle for more modest wheels.