James Jacobs of USA Today misses the beat on gun control. He postulates that if the Ninth Circus had embraced the Second Amendment rather than trying to repeal it, they would have more luck getting a national firearms registry. That of course, according to Jacobs, would be an invaluable crime fighting tool for police. Wrongo buddy.

First, can anyone tell me who would be exempted from such a registry? If you said 'felons', go to the head of the class. The FACT is that convicted felons, the criminally insane, and others who are barred from owning firearms don't have to register their guns. The SCOTUS has already ruled on this, and found that requiring a felon to register his gun would violate their Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination. Any law requiring them to do so, would be unconstitutional by default.

Therefore, the only ones who would be required to register their firearms would be regular law abiding citizens. Those folks aren't exactly in a high risk group for becoming violent criminals.

Also, the underlying assumption is that a national database of shell casings, bullet 'fingerprints', and firearm's serial numbers would be a useful crime fighting tool. The fact remains that a large percentage of crimes that are committed with firearms are committed with stolen firearms. Even if tracking the firearm, or even more unlikely, the bullet, back to the original owner were feasible, it would likely only yield a law abiding citizen who had already reported the firearm as stolen.

Will gun owners be quick to forfeit their rights for this? I think not. The phrase 'from my cold dead hands' comes to mind.