In 2008 Michigan admitted that the farce that was the handgun "Safety Inspection" system was simply handgun registration in everything but name. This law required anyone who acquired a handgun to bring it to the local police department within 10 days for a mandatory "Safety Inspection."
The whole concept of the "Safety Inspection" had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with control. It was devised back in 1927 as a way to keep handguns out of the hands of "undesirables." Local authorities could deny anyone (typically a minority) their right to keep a handgun by the simple means of declaring any handgun they brought in for the mandatory "Safety Inspection" to be "unsafe" and then confiscate the handgun.
Simply put: This was a joke, and the joke was on the law-abiding Michigan gun owner. The "Safety Inspection" consisted of a bored clerk copying down the owner's name and the gun's serial number. This did nothing to ensure the handgun was safe, but merely gave the police a chance to register the owner and the gun into a centralized state database run by the Michigan State Police.
Last year the legislature finally 'fessed up to the joke. They eliminated the ruse of the "Safety Inspection," and instead just required Michigan pistol owners to fill out the registration paperwork on their own and provide it their local police, who will then forward it to the Michigan State Police.
This change, while refreshing in it's honestly, does not go far enough. The pistol registration system does nothing keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Anyone who purchases a handgun from a gun shop undergoes a Federal background check which makes the Michigan registration redundant. Any criminal who acquires a handgun is certainly not to show up at the cop shop to register it. So, what's the point?
All the registration process does is violate the rights of law abiding citizens, intrude on their privacy, waste government resources, and make people who don't know any better feel good. With the current economic emergency it makes much more sense to eliminate the whole process and free up resources at both the local and state level. Wouldn't it make more sense to have local police departments out catching bad guys, instead of entering legal gun owner's info into computers? Wouldn't the money spent by the Michigan State Police to operate and maintain this registry be better spent putting more Troopers on the road?
The time is right to respect Michigan citizen's civil rights and eliminate unnecessary government waste. Now that the "Safety Inspection" is dead it's time for the rest of Michigan's handgun registration scheme to follow.
Comments
I agree with the author, state and local resources could be better spent on actual crime prevention rather than just harassing law abiding gun owners.
Good for you. Let's take a critical look at all firearm laws.
Thank you, good article. We need to get back to the fundamentals of the constitution.
It's ironic that 1200 building in Pontiac where Oakland County residents would have to go for the safety inspections actually had a sign with an arrow stating "Gun Registration =>".
What would be the best way to have our voices heard to help do away with Michigan registration completely?
Good read on an obvious breech of U.S. Constitutional Law...Keep up the good work.
I hear the arguments that 'taxpayer money could be be better spent' and 'police officers should be out catching criminals' often, but once bureaucracy establishes the budget to hire clerks to input your data and keep tabs on you, they continue to do so. In fact they need more registration policies to validate their very boring, unnecessary jobs that pay quite well for secretarial work. These are not LEO's logging computer time but desk jockeys with badges, so they won't be catching criminals if the registration is killed. They might be out of a job however, so they'll vote against any such repeal. Bureaucracy lives to grow bigger, always.
Just ran across this and had to wish you a good fight it getting rid of such violations of the constitution.
I hope there is a strong movement to remove the registration and would love to see an update from you regarding it if so.
In Monroe county in the 70's, the sheriff had the registration desk set up approximately 3 ft. from the jail cells. Any inmate could stand there and listen to you give your name and address to the typist. When I complained, I was told "tough s**t". Thankfully, I moved out of Michigan.
I disagree. If gun registration is gone, how will we know who owns and carries a gun. This can lead to many more crimes and deaths in our Country. I don't get why anybody thinks this is a good idea. It's a horrible conclusion and nothing should be changed.
Jill: Please cite an example of registration stopping a crime. The sophistry used to justify registration is amazing. Canada is repealing their registration scheme because over the years it has cost about a billion dollars and not one crime has been solved using the information. Registration is a revenue-enhancement scheme that leads to confiscation. Ask the Brits.
Are there any honest statistics that prove that owning a gun, registered or not, has actually saved anyone from anything? I think guns must be registered. If it gets stolen, how would you report it, how could you prove you did not use it in a murder or robery? I think all this "its my right" stuff is a bunch of crap, it's just a bunch of scared people thinking having a gun makes them tough and safe.
How do you check for guns that have been registered in your name. I want to make sure all my guns
are registered properly. Is there a .gov website where you can check the status of guns registered in
your name? Once a gun is registered...do you recieve some sort of paper work back from the state
proving that the gun is registered?
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