Register & Research Ban
Register and Research Ban
If
you own a motor vehicle in the United States, the law requires you to have a
Certificate of Ownership or Title to prove you are the legal owner. The
Certificate of Ownership details the owner’s name and address, the registration
plate number, and other details about the vehicle. Vehicle registration is
managed by each state’s department of motor vehicles (DMV). From these details,
a Vehicle Registry can be maintained. The motor vehicle registry is helpful in
many ways, such as identifying vehicles that have not passed necessary state
inspection tests, or in identifying the owners of vehicles involved in
accidents or crimes.
One
would expect a similar registry to be available for firearms, however, this is
not the case. Indeed, the laws surrounding the registration of firearms act in
the opposite direction to those surrounding the registration of motor vehicles.
Whilst the laws surrounding motor vehicles are that they must be registered,
the law surrounding firearms makes it illegal to create a firearm registry in
most instances.
The
law in question is The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA) which makes
it illegal for the national government or any state in the country to keep any
sort of database or registry that ties firearms directly to their owner. The
exact wording of the provision is as follows:
No such rule or regulation prescribed [by the
Attorney General] after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners
Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this
chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or
transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or
any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of
registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or
disposition be established. Nothing in this section expands or restricts the
Secretary's authority to inquire into the disposition of any firearm in the
course of a criminal investigation.[i]
To
determine the merits of this law it is necessary to understand the advantages
and disadvantages of creating a firearm registry. The case in favor of a
firearm registry is well made by Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence who
have published a web page detailing the advantages of maintaining a register of
firearms, which include the following[ii]:
Crime Gun Tracing – Firearm
registration helps law enforcement to identify the source of firearms recovered
from crime scenes. This is because Firearm registration laws create
comprehensive records of firearm ownership, which include a full description of
each firearm and identify the owner. Comprehensive registration laws also
require a firearm to be re-registered whenever title to the firearm is
transferred, and law enforcement to be notified whenever the weapon is lost or
stolen. As a result, registration laws help law enforcement quickly and
reliably identify the owner of any firearm used in a crime.
Disarming Dangerous People - Comprehensive registration laws
require gun owners to renew their registration annually or explain why they
should no longer be legally responsible for the weapon. During the renewal
process, owners undergo additional background checks to ensure that they have
not fallen into a class prohibited from possessing firearms. The renewal
process, therefore, creates an opportunity for law enforcement to remove
illegally possessed firearms.
Gun
Owner Accountability - Registration laws help reduce illegal firearm sales and
transfers by creating accountability for gun owners. A firearm owner who knows
that law enforcement can trace the firearm back to him or her maybe
deterred from transferring the firearm to a potentially dangerous individual
and maybe encouraged to store his or her firearm safely to prevent unauthorized
access or theft. Registration laws also help deter “straw purchases,” in
which an eligible person purchases a firearm on behalf of an ineligible person
or someone who wants to avoid having the gun traced back to them.
For
a different perspective on the merits of gun registration and to argue the case
against a firearm registry, we turn to the NRA and in particular their Executive
Vice President, Wayne LaPierre who quoted the following at a Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC) with regards to a federal firearm registry:
“That’s what [the feds] are
after, the names of good, decent people all over this country, who happen to
own firearms to go into a federal database or universal registration, every
lawful gun owner in America,” LaPierre said in a speech at the
Conservative Political Action Conference. “That’s their answer to criminal
violence… are they insane?”[iii]
So,
the argument against a federal database would appear to be that it is an
invasion of privacy i.e. why should law-abiding gun owners be on a database.
This seems to miss the point that being on a register would only have a
negative impact on the gun owner if the gun were used in a crime. Car owners
don’t complain about having their details on a database, so why should gun
owners complain. A gun registry may even help lawful gun owners retrieve their
guns if they are stolen and later recovered since they would easily be able to
show they are the legal gun owner.
There
is a certain irony in the NRA viewpoint in that they have built up their own
database of gun owners. With a national gun database containing names and
addresses, the NRA has the power to target certain markets and influence
Americans to support them[iv].
A
third website published by Bustle provides a more balanced review of the
advantages and disadvantages of a gun registry[v].
This lists 3 advantages and 2 disadvantages. The advantages noted below mirror
those of the Giffords Law Center, namely:
·
Cops could identify guns recovered at crime scenes
·
It could disarm criminals and domestic abusers
·
Illegal gun sales would drop
With
regards to the 1st disadvantage, it notes that whilst law enforcement
could identify legally held guns recovered at crime scenes, guns held illegally
would not be in the database and that the majority of firearms used in crimes
would still not be traceable. The issue of illegal guns is a valid point (which
will be reviewed in a later post) as most guns used in crimes
are held illegally, but it just limits the effectiveness of a gun database
rather than providing a reason not to have a gun database. Additionally, a
firearm register would reduce the number of illegal guns in circulation as it
would deter legal gun owners from selling their firearms illegally and put more
pressure on them to report stolen firearms.
The second disadvantage of a gun registry noted by Bustle is that this may lead to
the government disarming everyone. This type of argument is a typical example
of the fear-mongering used by gun-rights advocates, as this clearly would not
happen. Public support for the right to bear arms and the 2nd
Amendment ensures that the government would never even attempt to disarm
everyone. What a gun registry may do is disarm certain individuals who pose a
greater risk to themselves or others such as mentally disabled individuals or
domestic abusers. Surely this is a good thing that would help reduce the number
of firearm suicides and murders.
It
is important to note that the creation of a firearm registry has much popular
support. In February 2018 a Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 78% of
voters were in favor of creating a national database providing information
about each gun sale.[vi]
Finally,
the best way to evaluate the merits of having a firearm register is to examine
the gun death rates of states that currently do hold a gun register. Hawaii and
the District of Columbia have state laws requiring registration of all firearms
and New York has a law requiring the registration of all handguns. Giffords Law
Center to Prevent Gun Violence does not provide a ranking for the District of
Colombia but it is probably no coincidence that in their 2018 annual gun law
scorecard Hawaii had the lowest statewide gun death rate and New York state the
3rd lowest gun death rates in the country[vii].
2. Research Ban
In addition to the firearm register ban, there has until recently been an effective ban on firearm research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This was a consequence of the Dickey Amendment, a provision enacted in the 1996 spending bill mandating that no funds made available to the CDC for injury prevention and control may be used to advocate or promote gun control. In the same spending bill, Congress removed $2.6m from the CDC’s budget, the exact amount that had previously been allocated to the agency for firearms research the previous year. The Dickey Amendment was lobbied by the NRA in response to a 1993 CDC funded study showing that guns in the home were associated with an increased risk of homicide in the home and it is frequently described as a ban on gun violence research by the CDC[viii].
In
March 2018 an Omnibus spending bill clarified that the CDC is allowed to
research gun violence[ix],
however, the Dickey Amendment is still active in that there is still a ban on
the CDC promoting gun-control. Consequently, the CDC is reluctant to conduct
any research which may have the appearance of promoting gun-control. An
additional problem relates to the funding of the CDC, as Congress has continued
to block dedicated funding to gun violence research.
Following
the Dickey Amendment, CDC funding for firearm injury prevention fell 96%, down
to $100,000, from 1996 to 2013. The CDC was not alone in avoiding firearm
studies, the National Institute of Justice, an arm of the U.S. Department of
Justice, funded 32 gun-related studies from 1993 to 1999, but none from
2009-2013, according to Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Sponsors were spooked to
fund stuff that had to do with guns. Apparently studying firearms was not a way
to attract vital grant funding[x].
It
is very telling that the CDC is reluctant to research gun violence since on the
surface this would not necessarily be promoting gun-control. If research showed
for example that having a gun at home reduced the chances of residents being
injured or killed then the research would help promote gun-rights. In reality,
the CDC knows that research will highlight the negative impacts on gun
ownership and that inevitably the research will be seen as promoting gun-control,
which is still forbidden under the Dickey Amendment. It stands to reason that
the only ones to benefit from a ban on researching gun violence are those who
are fearful of the result. No wonder the NRA has been so supportive of the
Dickey Amendment.
Finally,
it should be noted that in 2015 Jay Dickey the author of the Dickey Amendment
stated that he regretted the fact that his amendment had in effect restricted
funding for research into gun violence and its effect on public health[xi].
[i] Paulsen, J. (2015, June 18). Are Guns Registered in a National
Firearms Registry. Retrieved from https://www.concealedcarry.com/law/are-guns-registered/
[ii] Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Registration.
Retrieved from https://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/gun-owner-responsibilities/registration/
[iii] RT
Question More. (2013, August 21). NRA built massive database of gun owners
while opposing national gun registry. Retrieved from https://www.rt.com/usa/nra-database-guns-registry-811/
[iv] RT Question More. (2013, August 21). NRA built massive database of
gun owners while opposing national gun registry. Retrieved from https://www.rt.com/usa/nra-database-guns-registry-811/
[v] Holter, L. (2018, June 1). These National Gun Registry Pros &
Cons Show Why The Debate Is So Thorny. Retrieved from https://www.bustle.com/p/5-national-gun-registry-pros-cons-show-why-the-debate-is-so-thorny-9242571
[vi] Shepard, S. (2018, February 28). Gun control support surges in
polls. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/28/gun-control-polling-parkland-430099
[vii] Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Annual Gun Law
Scorecard. Retrieved from https://lawcenter.giffords.org/scorecard2018/#rankings
[viii] The Dickey Amendment.
Retrieved from https://appd.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/meetings/2017SpringPresentations/WS31HO4.pdf
[ix] Greenfieldboyce, N. (2018, March 23). Spending Bill Lets CDC Study
Gun Violence; But Researchers Are Skeptical It Will Help. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/03/23/596413510/proposed-budget-allows-cdc-to-study-gun-violence-researchers-skeptical
[x] Frankel, T. (2015, January 14). Why the CDC still isn’t researching
gun violence, despite the ban being lifted two years ago. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2015/01/14/why-the-cdc-still-isnt-researching-gun-violence-despite-the-ban-being-lifted-two-years-ago/
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