Based on the poll I took a few days ago, there seem to be some people who believe registration is the line in the sand, but it’s not a majority. Only about 11% of people who answered the poll. I don’t disagree with folks on this for two reasons. For one, if the reason we hate registration is because it enables confiscation, we already have that. For all intents and purposes, 4473 is registration. All a government would have to do is call in all those forms and scan them into a computer, or just keep going down the list. Sure, it would be incomplete, but it’s probably complete enough for most of us. Second, registration depends on voluntary compliance. Unless you’re going to go around searching people’s houses door to door, in which case we have bigger problems than the registration law itself, if people don’t comply, there’s not much the government can do. This is a good candidate for civil disobedience, which has worked very well in Canada.
But how far is too far? Has California gone too far? Chicago? DC? New Jersey? Would someone there be morally justified in shooting it out? I tend to think that as long as firearms of reasonably modern lineage are available to people for purchase and use, then the line hasn’t yet been crossed to the point where we’re ready to start thinking about the exercising the second amendment’s true purpose.
I hate California’s assault weapons ban, but it does regulate cosmetic features. It’s what makes the ban silly, but it also doesn’t do much to prevent people from carrying out the purposes of the second amendment. Are you really that badly downgraded with an M1 Garand, or a Mini-14 ranch rifle than an AR-15? The ban is annoying, and yes, I do believe it infringes on the second amendment, but in terms of it’s practical significance in preventing the execution of its purpose, California’s laws frustrate the second amendment, but do not entirely destroy it.
I’m also skeptical about resorting to the doomsday scenario in response to local laws. There is a fine tradition in America of saying “f^*k this!” and voting with your feet. People have been fleeing Massachusetts and New Jersey by the droves. New York, particularly upstate, has also been depopulating. No doubt this is not all over gun laws, but it would seem that when governments stop respecting their citizens, and start over-taxing, regulating, infantalizing them, they get sick of it and seek out greener pastures. Who would have known? I think gun owners can get a lot of mileage out of moving to states that repsect their rights. I think you can even make a plan out of that. Sure, picking up your life and moving it is a big commitment, but a far less so than pulling the trigger.
That said, I do think we need to keep the government from destroying the second amendment. That’s a line that can’t be crossed, because if it is, you can bet others will be. Fortunately, the government seems more interested these days in saying that it means something, rather than looking for ways to undermine it (Fenty and Daley’s turds in the pool notwithstanding), but if we do start heading down the path to destruction of that right, my attitude will not remain so moderate.
