Shooting Ourselves in the Foot - ATF Barred by Law from Maintaining Gun Registry

Many individuals might be surprised to learn that there is no national registration database of guns.  The government does not know for certain how many firearms are in circulation, who owns them, or how many are sold in a given time period.

When a gun is used in crime, the process of tracing it requires a great deal of time and effort, an archaic process undertaken to get to the source…eventually.

Why is the government hamstrung in its efforts to solve crimes and apprehend perpetrators of the gun homicide epidemic?  Because the National Rifle Association, its members, and friends used their muscle to enact federal law which precludes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from tracking guns.

Motor vehicles are not ordinarily used to intentionally kill innocent people, yet every state requires registration of them.   Guns, which are used to intentionally kill, maim, threaten, and terrorize innocent people every day in our violent United States, are not subject to the same policy.

I suppose the NRA would insist that to require registration of guns would be a grave violation of its interpretation of an unlimited Second Amendment, and that it would provide the government a leg up to confiscate guns on the day that federal marshals go door to door to take away all Second Amendment rights.

It is clear that there is an amount of carnage the NRA is willing to tolerate in order to provide the American people with a Second Amendment that is like no other, one with no responsibilities or limitations. Would a gun registration registry cause deaths by firearm to wither away?  Probably not, but it has the potential to make it more difficult for the murderous to slaughter. So long as offending the NRA is an electrified rail of American politics, we can expect many more atrocities to occur anywhere at any time and to anyone.