Universal Background Checks: The Beginning of the End for Gun Ownership – LTTE
Opinion By Andy Massimilian
Letter to the AmmoLand Editor
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- We hear it all the time. “Universal Background Checks” for all gun transfers are a “reasonable” and “effective” way to stop criminals and the deranged from getting guns. Don’t believe a word of it.
Criminals overwhelmingly get their guns on the black market now and will continue to do so if this law is enacted, and the architects of this backdoor attack on your privacy and civil rights know it.
What’s the real intent of UBCs? Complete surveillance by the Federal Government of every lawful gun transfer.
With UBCs, each transferee– except criminals who always skate the system— will have their name, address, birthdate, race, and other personal data entered into a Federal database through the NICS background check system.
The NICS system started in 1998 for transactions with FFLs. Records of successful checks are supposed to be purged from the system within 24 hours. If the check results in a “delay” response, the subject’s identity is kept in the system for up to 90 days. The identity of those whose checks are denied (even incorrectly) is retained in the system indefinitely. At least that is what is supposed to happen under current law and procedure, but given the abuses that occurred within the IRS, FBI, and ATF during the Obama administration, it’s reasonable to be skeptical that the law is always followed and a backup file does not lurk somewhere within the vast Federal IT bureaucracy.
In fact, records of many gun buyers were retained for “Audit Purposes” during the Clinton Administration until the NRA found out and pressed Congress to put an end to it. Who’s to say that another excuse to retain them won’t be fabricated in the future?
Even if we assume the Feds are all playing by the rules, one thing is certain: if UBCs become law, the Democrats will push hard for Universal Registration using the next mass shooting as the pretense. Some are doing so already. Given every Democratic presidential candidate’s fealty to Mike Bloomberg, many have openly embraced confiscation and UBCs will have enabled that policy by forcing each and every law abiding person who acquires a gun to submit their personal information to the NICS system. Once UBCs are law, all it takes for this “next step” towards their end-game of confiscation is a simple software change and a change of law.
In short, UBCs can create a defacto registration list of legal gun owners, and will easily enable registration of each of their purchases in the future.
