Making Legal Guns Illegal
Those who think that ALL guns that are legally owned and possessed now will forever remain legal due to some "grandfather" clause had better think again. Here is a quote from
http://www.gunowners.org/fs0202.htm that shows otherwise.
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"Registration and Confiscation
But why all the fuss about gun owner registration? Quite simply, gun registration has been used -- even in this country -- to later confiscate firearms. One such instance occurred in New York City just a few years ago.
It all began with promises made by New York City officials in the mid-1960s. They wanted to register long guns, over the vocal opposition of the city's gun owners. The city fathers promised they would never use such lists to take away firearms from honest citizens. But in 1991, the city banned (and soon began confiscating) many of those very guns.
Gun owners were ordered to get rid of their newly-banned firearms. Those who didn't comply were subject to having their firearms taken away.
For example, the Daily News reported in 1992 that "police raided the home of a Staten Island man who refused to comply with the city's tough ban on assault weapons, and seized an arsenal of firearms.... Spot checks are planned [for other homes.]"30
New York City officials do not hold a monopoly when it comes to showing bad faith.
California passed a ban on certain semi-automatic firearms in 1989. Banned guns could be legally possessed if they were registered prior to the ban. In the spring of 1995, one man who wished to move to California asked the Attorney General whether his SKS Sporter rifle would be legal in the state. The citizen was assured the rifle was legal, and based on that information, he subsequently moved into the state. But in 1998, California officials reversed course and confiscated the firearm.31
Since then, documents leaked from the office of the California Attorney General have showed that state officials were planning a mass-confiscation of privately owned firearms from citizens who had previously registered their guns.32
The semi-automatic firearms in question were registered with the state pursuant to former Attorney General Dan Lungren's instructions. Lungren had granted an amnesty to thousands of gun owners and allowed them to register their guns after the initial deadline for doing so had lapsed.33
Despite the good faith shown by gun owners, the California government later ordered these gun owners to dispose of their weapons.
How did the authorities know whom to contact to notify them to turn in their weapons? The registration lists, of course.
This proves the point that the ultimate goal of registration is to facilitate confiscation."
