Paranoid or Prudent?

When I bought a Ruger last year I started to fill out the registration card they provide, but then stopped after I considered the potential outcome. While I trust Ruger and other gun makers to not misuse information they obtain in this manner, I don't trust the government that much.

Clearly, Ruger simply wants to know some basic information in case of recalls and for marketing purposes. Of course, it's not too hard to imagine how much an anti-gun administration would love to get their hands on a database filled with the names, addresses, and model & serial numbers of every gun they ever sold for use in things like aiding in gun confiscation.

I asked an online friend if he sent in his registration card when he bought a few guns a while earlier. He said no and his reasoning was the same as mine.

What say all of you? Would you fill out postage paid registration cards from a gun maker or would you not because you don't want info on your gun ownership even more available to government that you don't really trust? And I'm not specifically referring to Obama, but any future administration.

 

Its a shame that we have to even worry about such absurd things...

But I'll say its more prudent than paranoid... but still a little paranoid

 

^^^^ That was my 666th post... now I'm paranoid!

 

I refuse to fill those out, not because of a fear of the fed.gov finding it but because I know they'll sell it to marketing firms. Also, if it's new you filled out a 4473, yes? So the registration card is kinda moot in terms of fed.gov getting your info if they want it.

 

Yeah, you have a point there and one that I've noted as well. In fact, earlier this year I wrote an editorial on how we effectively have the makings of a national gun registry with 4473, which, as I understand it, must be kept by your gun dealer for 20 years before the original can be destroyed. And all the information from that form is entered into their bound book which must be kept till the end of time and should they go out of business all that info must be handed over to the ATF.

While we don't technically have a national gun registry, all it would take is a herd of civil servants to gather the existing stockpile of information from gun dealers and enter all of it into a computer.

And if they wanted a list "dangerous gun nuts" they could simply demand the NRA's member list. Or the government could simply buy the mailing list from a publication like Guns & Ammo -- pretty good bet the folks reading that owns guns.

 

I always fill them out, because it's usually tied to the warranty.

The 4473 is moving towards digital, and there really isn't any information the government can't get about you from DMV, credit, banking, ISP, cell phone & other sources to find out what you've been up to.

The other thing to consider is that the same caliber of people who work at your local DMV or tax office are the same type of people who have low-level clearance and perform menial tasks for "the man", such as processing paperwork and performing background checks.

Personally, I'm not worried. I have a shredder for junk mail, and if the government really wants to find something out about me, they will - judicial process and constitution be damned.

That being said, I have a couple of attorneys in the family, as well as my own personal legal council, so I can afford to be nonchalant. Plus, I'm one of 300 million citizens and I don't make waves.

The media can pump up stories and/or create them with impunity; it's almost a given now that your local news is designed to attract viewers through outrage or puff pieces rather than simply reporting the news in an unbiased fashion, so why get upset or paranoid about something you cannot even begin to change? I prefer to sit back and enjoy the silence afforded to me by ignoring all media and simply living my life the way I want, with my wife along for the ride.

Granted, it's not a very patriotic way to live (we are NRA members at least), but since we don't (and won't) have children, there's really no reason to feel otherwise...

 

Hey, you just posted on a gun forum. That means you're almost certainly armed, and using Brady Bunch logic, surely dangerous.

 

I thought Brady bunch logic was "no one but the police and military should have guns".

This thread is about the implications of filling out manufacturer's registration cards; that's it. If you want to make it about something more, start your own thread.

Oh, and I'm well aware of where I posted.

 

Well I tried explaining we already have a gun registry and got laughed off. Yeah until I asked genius why it is the FBI COPS etc can and do usually trace a gun in a matter of minutes if the indirect means is not already for all practical purposes a registry? Don't believe it? Go commit a crime with a gun see how long it takes them to trace it to you.

Even if you bought it off Joe Blow in the street corner, it will be traced to you. In a way its a good thing because they can solve crimes faster if they know who bought the gun in question and from where. Hey, we have to look at the bright side, we don't live in an ideal world. If you, your friends or family are the victims, you will be begging them to trace the damn gun. Tough I know, much tougher than an ideal couch decision.

 

dec41971, you watch too much CSI.

 

Why would a modern government bother with gun confiscation when there are such easier, quieter, and more publicly popular ways of eliminating civilian firearms ownership?

 

Interesting. Maybe some more research about who owns many gun companies and what their relationship with the government is, might be in order. You may be surprised.

 

I say it can't be any worse than our registry up here, the only personnal information they don't have is the size of my dick, everything else is in the hands of the government, it's 2 (and soon to be 3) billion dollars registry and it's reliable employees. Damnit.

This CSI stuff is as real as it gets baby. It's a daily thing up here, that doesn't mean it's a good thing tho.

 

Well now they know that too!

 

I tend to not fill them in, because the companies sell the details to marketing companies that send more junk to my house and puts you more open to identity theft, than any boogeyman fear that the government is out to get me. It makes the company a lot of money to be able to do this, and enough people will always buy from the mail they send you from other companies or organisations to make it worthwhile for them.

 

Hahahahahahaha! Oh ****.

 

Seems I have read somewhere that a reply card is not allowed to be required for warranty purposes any longer. I know I receive a lot less trash in the mail if I do not send back that crap.

And if you are active in forums like this one, it is pretty unlikely that a safety recall will go unnoticed either.

But I say it is prudence tempered by common sense to avoid as much of this foolishness as possible. By the way, I understand (and disagree about) the keeping of the form 4473's at the retail level, but aren't the NICS inquiries "supposed" to be erased from the archives after a certain time period ? I have less faith or trust in the Feds every day, especially for the past year, but since it is still possible to lawfully buy/sell face to face, I usually shoot what I buy (retail that is) for a month or so and them sell everything, lawfully, ftf. I don't actually own any firearms at all, presently.

Honest.