Registering Collectibles and Confiscating Defense Guns:
Summer 2003
By Richard W. Stevens
"Gun collectors don't need to worry about 'gun control.' Why
would anybody want to register or take away a pre-1900 antique handgun?"
Gun Control Australia's
president John Crook answered: "The public has every reason to want as
strict a control as possible over every gun." A law
taking effect in Australia on July 31, 2003, requires that nearly all
collectible handguns must be registered and their owners licensed.
To get a collector's
license under the law, the Australian gun owners must be photographed and
fingerprinted. Owners must also now install doors and safes in rooms where such
handguns are stored. It doesn't matter what kind of handgun it is, or whether
it can be fired, or if the collector would ever fire it.
That isn't all. A
national handgun buyback scheme, funded with $118 million, aims to obtain
historic firearms from private owners … and then destroy the guns. Some
of these antique firearms are valued up to $250,000. The spokesman for the
Police Minister explained, "The object of the national handgun buyback is
to ensure that handguns don't make their way onto the streets." Even guns
that can't be fired.
Compromise Means
Defeat
Apparently the Historic
Arms Collecting Council of Australasia chose a path of "compromise"
that failed miserably. Gordon Morgan, president of the Council, reportedly
stated that the Council supports "gun control" laws affecting
concealable weapons. The Council only objects to categorizing antique weapons
that way. "We don't shoot these guns," said Morgan. "We're
custodians of our heritage."
Who won in Australia: the
compromising, "reasonable gun control" Council? Or the no-compromise,
maximum gun control group?
Next time someone says
that gun collectors don't have a dog in the "gun control" fight
– tell him or her about Australia, July 31, 2003.
Canceling
Self-Defense
Meanwhile, recent news
from the Philippines confirms the fact that registration is the prelude to
confiscation. The Philippine Interior Department had issued thousands of carry
permits to citizens who showed a professional or self-protection need. These
permits cost $131 (US) – a very substantial sum in that nation. Now, by
order of the Philippine President, all of these permits are cancelled.
Under Philippine law,
most citizens may own only two firearms: one shotgun or .22 caliber rifle, and
one handgun. Getting a license for each gun requires proof of employment,
approval from police officials, mayors and courts, passing drug and psychiatric
tests, and paying fees. Buying a firearm involves more approvals and fees.
Owners need the carry permit if they want to transport a gun outside the home.
By canceling the carry
permits nationwide, the government has placed gun owners in a no-win,
defenseless position. If a person is caught with a firearm outside of the home,
he or she faces prosecution and/or confiscation of the firearm.
The Filipino people have
no Second Amendment legal protection of their right to own and possess
firearms. A pro-gun lawyer nevertheless filed a lawsuit challenging the
government's order, explaining that Filipinos "have the right to carry
arms because it is intertwined to our rights to protect life, especially here
in the Philippines where we all know that the police cannot protect the
citizens."
Of course, canceling the
carry permits for law-abiding citizens does nothing to make them safer. The gun
prohibition laws don't affect the communist New People's Army, the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, or the various rebels and bandit gangs in rural areas.
Extortion and kidnapping for ransom occur regularly in the Philippines.
Carrying a firearm, especially in remote areas, is the only defense that
citizens have against the predators.
Nando Pacheco, president
of the Filipino anti-self defense group called the Gun-less Society, still
calls for "progressive disarmament." Pacheco recently both lied and
grievously insulted his countrymen terribly by saying: "You know the
Filipinos: even just with traffic problems, there will be gun battles."
(Would Pacheco speak so
flippantly at the funeral for a disarmed young mother murdered by bandits in a
rural village? "You know the Filipinos, killing women …")
No matter how
restrictive the gun laws, the anti-self defense lobbyists never stop pushing
for more "gun control." Collectible guns are fair game. The right to
self-defense can be gutted. There can never be enough "gun control"
laws until all private gun ownership is eliminated.
To learn more – to help roll back "gun control" – join
JPFO today (still only $20 annual dues). Preview the dozens of resources
available for gun owners at the website: www.jpfo.org. Don't wait until the
Australian and Philippine laws invade the U.S.A.