I'm an old guy and never in my life have I seen our nation adopt such a can't-do and cowardly attitude as we have when it comes to instituting universal mandatory gun registration.
I can hear the NRA/gun industry/right wingnuts trotting out the old "criminals don't obey laws so registration is useless" mantra. And yes, that sounds sort of sensible on the surface but let's look into this a little.
Let's say we have a national mandatory registration law that covers all but transfers within families (may be other small exceptions) but that covers the great majority of gun ownership transfers. Right away it would mean that criminals can't, for example, drive from Chicago to Indiana and buy a trunk load of guns at a gun show unless the seller is willing to risk legal problems. Same situation across the nation. Gun show sales and straw buyers are on the line.
Combine this, over time, with the police confiscating guns used in crimes. Slow process, but a sure one. Now we are reducing the supply on the street while at the same time limiting the ability of crooks to obtain guns. Prices go up. The $25 Saturday night special price would skyrocket and increase annually. As there are lots of guns floating around this could take many many years but the point is to do something! As it is now we are spineless as a nation. We have given up. We have said that we can't handle this problem. It's time to show some American resolve and tackle the situation.
