New Mexico Sheriffs Warn Democrats’ Gun Control Plan Leads to Gun Registry

The Democrats’ push for universal background checks will lead to a gun registry in New Mexico, says a letter signed by 32 of the 33 sheriffs in the state.

Breitbart News reported Jan. 3 that Democrat lawmakers in New Mexico were quietly pushing a requirement that every firearm sale–retail or private–be conducted via the auspices of a Federal Firearm License holder (FFL).

This is the kind of the law that was passed in Washington state in November 2014 and did nothing to stop the September 23, 2016, mass shooting in a Burlington mall. It is also the same kind of law on the books in California, which did nothing to prevent the December 2, 2015, San Bernardino terror attack.

But while such laws are powerless to stop determined attackers, they do pose a real hindrance to law-abiding citizens’ exercise of freedom. And in the case of New Mexico, sheriffs are warning that the state will follow in California’s footsteps; adding a gun registry to universal background checks because the checks are not enforceable without a registry.

Thirty-two of the thirty-three sheriffs in New Mexico oppose the gun control on these grounds:

“.. this scheme would be unenforceable without creating a gun registry.”#NewMexico https://t.co/GditbX4NlU

— NRA (@NRA) February 8, 2017

Breitbart News has long warned that a gun registry is necessary for universal background checks to work, whether the checks are at a federal or state level. This is because the government has to know where every gun is if it wants to know whether a gun is changing hands in a private sale. And those who have paid attention have witnessed the scenario play out in California, where universal background checks have been complimented with firearm registration and gun confiscation laws.

It is also worth noting that the checks being pushed in New Mexico are prone to fail and would not have stopped an attack like the one on the Orlando Pulse nightclub (because the Orlando attacker passed a background check for both his guns). So the ultimate result of the passage of the proposed checks in New Mexico could be the establishment of a gun registry.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.