In the bi-partisan Senate(sic) negotiations broke down today on figuring out how to accomplish background checks for hand held weapons…. By an overwhelming majority, Americans support the notion that every gun be registered to a single owner, and if a crime occurs, that owner can be charged with a conspiracy to that crime, provided he had not reported that weapon stolen….

A reader has brought up the major fear all gun owners have on getting their guns registered.  They hide behind the Constitutionality that registering guns with the Government, is the first step to confiscation.   This is not their real reason.

Their guns are illegal.  Not to them, But at some point in the past, they bought a gun in a shady private deal that did not require a background check, and the possibility lurks that their weapon they’ve had for years, probably in all fairness, was actually the stolen property of another gun owner….and with a registry, that fact will be found out.!!!

As soon as a registry goes into effect, computers will begin matching the numbers….

And, it is not these law abiding gun owner’s fault.  They performed their transactions legally, and the seller of the weapon probably in good faith, performed the transaction legally…. But with the ability to trace weapons, a gun registered in 2013 can be  found to have been stolen in 1989…..

Obviously this is a real fear.  I think all of us would feel the same.  I know I would.  Likewise, for us to move forward in taking effective action to prevent future tragedies like Newtown, we need to solve this issue.

The reality is that these once-stolen guns, are now in new homes, and those new owners are law abiding citizens… Without a registering of firearms, this criminality, possession of stolen merchandise, would never have been determined…

So by declaring no one will be prosecuted for having stolen merchandise, would go a long way to make sure fixing one injustice, does not create another…

We need amnesty against any legal action taken to retrieve ownership of a long lost gun. In most cases a statue of limitations would be long in effect, but we need a blanket Federal amnesty protection given priority over state an local laws on criminal prosecution….

We need this amnesty because we need universal background checks.

That accountability is key to holding criminals responsible..  As we go forward into the future, we will  need that clear accountability to control which guns confiscated from criminal belong to law abiding citizens who can then get return of their stolen possession, and which guns confiscated can lead us to more criminals who are using the current holes in our system to funnel guns to 7-11 and convenience store robbers….

We need oversight and accountability to accomplish this….

And putting law abiding citizens at risk for crimes of the past of which they were unaware,  gets in our way of doing what an overwhelming number of Americans want….  closing the ability of criminals to get possession of guns…..

I think tacking amnesty for gun owners covering any issues a gun registry may illuminate,  needs to be in any gun legislation bill put forward….  It is no different from granting immunity, which across this nation prosecutors do every single day……..

So let’s get it done.