gdcpony
Member
Finally, an idea I could jump on board with. So long as this would replace the broken system we have now. The idea could use some tweaking as the thread posts say, but a variation of this could be used rather effectively I think.
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=689033
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=689033
One of the main problems with background checks is they tend to turn into de-facto registration. Registration in turn increases government temptation to confiscation. If it looks like Congress is going to pass universal background check legislation, maybe we can derail it by holding out for a compromise that prevents de-facto registration.
It could work like this. When you want to buy a gun you go to the government website yourself on your own computer at home or wherever you want. You request a background check certificate in your name. When the check has completed, you are given a certificate that is cryptographically signed by the government, declaring you passed the check. You can print out this certificate on your own printer and take it with you to buy one or more guns from one or more sellers. Since no gun serial numbers are entered and there is no further contact with the government in the transfer process to find out who you bought a gun from or how many, there is no de-facto registration.
Because the background check certificate is cryptographically signed by the government, anyone with a computer can easily verify that the certificate is genuinely issued by the government and can not have been altered in the slightest way, not so much as a comma added or a space inserted. This is possible because cryptographic signatures do a mathematical operation on every single character, space, and period in the document, where the result of the math operation will change if there is the slightest change in the document. If you doubt this, I don't blame you, but with further explanation I won't go into yet, I am confident I can convince practically everybody that this is reliably true for practical purposes.