New York Gun Owners Flip the Bird to “Assault Weapons” Registration Law

Over at Reason.com, J.D. Tuccille notes that New York gun owners are a bit hesitant, to say the least, about obeying their Governor’s latest edict on semi-auto rifles…

New York Governor Cuomo the Junior may have rushed through his new gun control law with such speed that police will avoid its restrictions only through the blessed miracle of selective enforcement, but he may have a little trouble getting the state’s firearms owners to attend his party. The new law requires owners of those scary-looking rifles known as “assault weapons” to register their property (amidst assurances that, oh no, the registration lists will never be used for confiscation), but gun rights activists are actively urging gun owners to defy the new mandate.

Also noted is what a rousing success AW registration has been here in California. Estimates vary, but it’s generally believed that 300,000 firearms met the State’s “Assault weapon” definition and should have been registered. According to the NY Times, only about 7,000 were actually registered.

The reason for such reticence isn’t hard to fathom. When gun owners charge that politicians can’t be trusted to resist using registration lists for future confiscation, they’re not being paranoid — New York City and California have both done just that.

Charges of paranoia also fall flat when one remembers American history. We fear a tyrannical, gun-grabbing government because our forefathers actually were victims of just such a thing. Remember that our former monarch really did try to disarm us. It can happen here because it did happen here.