Appeals Court: Government Can Require Gun Registration

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/19 ... 3857.shtml

An appeals court in Chicago has ruled that the federal, state or local government can require all citizens to register their firearms under penalty of law.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said that, even after the Supreme Court's high-profile gun rights decision last year, the Second Amendment is no obstacle to mandatory gun registration.

The case arose out of the Chicago-area town of Cicero's mandatory registration requirement for firearms. A local man named John Justice was raided by the Cicero police on suspicion of violating business ordinances including improper storage of chemicals; the police discovered six unregistered handguns during the raid.

Justice runs the Microcosm laminating company on 55th Ave., which sells special adhesives and does custom coatings for customers, and argued in a civil lawsuit that the local ordinance violated the Second Amendment. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

In a 3-0 opinion published last Friday, the judges said that this was a different situation from the District of Columbia v. Heller case, which led the Supreme Court to strike down D.C.'s law effectively prohibiting the ownership of handguns.

"There is a critical distinction between the D.C. ordinance struck down in Heller and the Cicero ordinance," the court said in an opinion written by Judge Diane Wood, a Clinton appointee. "Cicero has not prohibited gun possession in the town. Instead, it has merely regulated gun possession under Section 62-260 of its ordinance."

If the court had merely written that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to the states (a concept called incorporation), this would not have been especially newsworthy. After all, a different three-judge panel from the 7th Circuit already has rejected the incorporation argument.

What's unusual -- and makes this case remarkable -- is that Wood went out of her way to say that even if the Second Amendment does apply to states, mandatory gun registration would be perfectly constitutional. "The town does prohibit the registration of some weapons, but there is no suggestion in the complaint or the record that Justice's guns fall within the group that may not be registered," she wrote. "Nor does Heller purport to invalidate any and every regulation on gun use."

The other judges on the panel were William Bauer, a Ford appointee, and John Tinder, a George W. Bush appointee.

I haven't been able to find the full text of Section 62-260 online (update: I've found it and attached it below), The Legal Community Against Violence's summary of firearm laws says that in Cicero, "all firearms in the City must be registered prior to taking possession of the firearm" and that registration certificates must be renewed every two years.

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in an interview that registration is terrible public policy, especially because world history shows that it often leads to confiscation.

Last week's decision should remind us that Heller won't be the last word on gun rights, Gottlieb said. "It starts building blocks on a foundation -- you don't win everything in one case," he said. "As you and I know, criminals aren't going to register their guns. Prohibited persons aren't going to register their guns. Someone prohibited from owning a gun isn't going to register it. Registration would apply only to law-abiding citizens."

There is no national registration requirement for firearms, although anyone buying a gun from a dealer fills out a Form 4473, which the dealer must keep on file in paper form for 20 years. My home state of California says that all handguns be registered, but it's not as strict as Cicero's requirement (rifles and shotguns are exempt from registration).

David Kopel, research director at the Golden, Colo.-based Independence Institute, said: "I think Heller at least hints that (Cicero's regulation) might be unconstitutional. Registration of non-commercial transactions might be unconstitutional. At least it leaves the question open." (Kopel has pointed out that four Chicago suburbs repealed their handgun bans post-Heller.)

I happened to interview Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, earlier on Wednesday and asked him about what the Heller decision means for gun control. He replied: "Outside D.C.'s gun ban and perhaps Chicago's, there really probably aren't that many gun laws that are going to be affected by Heller. What I've argued is that Heller, in a way, took the extremes off the table. It said you can't have a total gun ban like D.C.'s. They also took the other extreme off the table, which is that anyone can have any gun, anywhere, any time."

Read literally, the Seventh Circuit's decision means that the U.S. Congress could enact a mandatory registration requirement tomorrow -- a law saying that you must report your handguns, rifles, and shotguns to the FBI and ATF or go to prison -- and at least one federal circuit would uphold it as constitutional.

But would the Supreme Court justices? A number of gun cases, including one brought by the National Rifle Association, another out of New York, and a third out of California, are headed in their direction. By next summer we may have an answer.

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Update 1:38am ET: A helpful CBSNews.com reader, James E., was kind enough to point me toward the text of the town of Cicero's regulation. You can find it on Municode.com. The interface is awful, but if you poke around on the menus to the left under Chapter 62, Article VI, you'll find it.

It's a remarkable read. Cicero makes it illegal to possess "any slingshot," or any "laser sight accessory." Non-dealer firearm transfers are prohibited. Carrying a "concealed" knife is prohibited. The unlicensed sale of a "Bowie knife" is prohibited. A quick read shows that it is illegal to "fire or discharge any gun, pistol or other firearm within the town" except at licensed shooting ranges -- which I imagine poses a problem for residents hoping to use a gun for legitimate self-defense.

Anyway, the portion relevant to today's story says: "All firearms in the town shall be registered in accordance with this division. It shall be the duty of a person owning or possessing a firearm to cause such firearm to be registered. No person shall within the town possess, harbor, have under his control, transfer, offer for sale, sell, give, deliver, or accept any firearm unless such person is the holder of a valid registration certificate for such firearm. No person shall, within the town, possess, harbor, have under his control, transfer, offer for sale, sell, give, deliver, or accept any firearm which is unregisterable under this division." (Police, of course, are exempt.)

[falcon1]

Actually, convicted felons are still protected from registering their firearms; it violates their right against self-incrimination. Only the law-abiding are affected by this ruling.

I'm glad we don't live in the Seventh Circuit's jurisdiction.

[GraceOutcast]

So Sad

Registration is the first step towards confiscation

*Pondering how many off the books weapons I can fit in a small safe deposit box*

[Dan Lee]

Attempts at Confiscation could lead to serious Injury or Death for either the confiscator, their victims, or both.. Probably not the brightest idea..

[jpesz]

Unfortunately the type of people who would confiscate guns would also have little problem with killing gun owners. If you have seen the videos from New Orleans you have seen that they had no problem assaulting and body slaming innocent citizens including little old ladies.

[lilredhunter]

Look at what they did to the one lady in her own home. They knocked her down and commensed to beating her with ASP. I get so mad whenever I see that video. You can bet with what ammo I have access to, it will be a long hard fight. They will take me out before taking my guns. I am like Heston on that. I don't have a real problem with registering my guns. It is the thought they could attempt to confiscate for some phony BS law that was sneaked in with a credit card bill or something that will easily pass. You know the representatives we have can not possibly read everything that comes across their desks.

[C. Richard Archie]

It will be more of a California approach. They simply will pass a law which makes the ownership illegal. If you have registered weapons, and do not turn them in, all services will be shut off. They are too smart to go house to house taking up weapons. The sheep in New Orleans are an aberration, you will notice when they tried that mess in Mississippi, they got their heads handed back to them, and the effort was abandoned quickly.

As the databases generated in today's world is so all encompassing, those who fail to turn over their weapons will be cut off from banking, medical services, electricity will be shut down. No need to kick in doors and take the chance on getting shot at, just turn the spigot of Government service off, which is the real impetuous of the Nanny State, if each individual has to rely on the government to survive, they can rule by removing those services. Once the majority of those who would obey the law are dispossessed of their weapons, the take up of the remainder will be easy. There will be a few Ruby Ridges for the teleprompter to show as examples, but by and large withholding service will get the majority done sans bloodshed.

[lilredhunter]

There will be many hold outs that have food & water stored up. People who already have generators in place. I know a few "survivalist" that live close to me that have all the above. It will become like the Y2K idiots were. Hoarding MREs and going crazy.

[Dan Lee]

[lilredhunter]

There is a guy in his late 60's down the road from me. He has one room in his house that has, cases of MREs stacked floor to ceiling and about 6-8 feet wide, then he has those big jugs of water like from Crystal Springs. I think they are 5 gallons. he has around 50 of those stacked in the room,he of course has a generator for electricity, that thing is huge and is a big diesel. He keeps a big tank on skids and will put stuff in it to keep down the bacteria. He has tv's & radios, scanners including one that is digital and can trunk track. He belives that other small people will invade us. He also has several weapons in the room as well.

[ProguninTN]

[falcon1]

[backwoodsman]

registration is just the beginning of dismantling the constitution and instituting marxism, communism, government control, taxes upon taxes, industry controlled by government, look at the current administration, more czars than you can shake a stick at, who by law do not have to be vetted or answer to congress at all!, these czars are comprised of people who would put sterilants in the water supply to control population, acorn members,black panthers, former convicts, devout communists,,,, it's not just about the second amendment folks, it is about the entire constitution, capitolism,and a government run by the people,not for the people without their consent, the sky is not falling, they are decimating a block at a time so as not to arouse suspicion, calling a pile of cow poop ,fertilizer doesn't make it stink any less.