General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If your gun is used in a crime, you should be charged with a felony. [View all]Straw Man
(6,959 posts)I don't know if you're aware of it, but there is case law to the effect that requiring felons to register guns violates their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Registering it would require them to confess to the crime of possessing it; a felon can be charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, but not with failure to register that weapon. A mandatory insurance law would similarly only cover people whose possession of the firearm was otherwise perfectly legal -- i.e. law-abiding citizens whose only crime was a failure to insure their guns. Hard to see how that is going to make society much safer.
That said, let's enter into this in a spirit of compromise. OK, I'll gladly trade mandatory gun insurance for fifty-state concealed-carry reciprocity. Let's not do a federal CCW permit, but instead pass a federal law requiring all states to recognize each other's CCWs. Isn't something similar already the case with driver's licenses?
Any takers?