Universal background checks a prelude to national registration, says gun rights advocate

Gun rights advocate John Lott Jr. said in an interview that aired Monday on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that the passage of universal background checks would signify a prelude to a national gun registration. 

“If you get a Democratic president, and they were to pass something like these universal background checks, I think it’s just a prelude to having national registration of guns,” Lott Jr., the author of “The War on Guns,” told host Buck Sexton last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

“This legislation right now officially says it’s not going to be used for registration, but the thing is, this information is kept by the licensed dealers,” he continued. 

The Democratic-controlled House gave the green light to legislation that would extend the review period for background checks on firearm purchases last week.

Democrats in the lower chamber also passed legislation last month that would require all gun sellers to conduct background checks on firearm buyers.

Both pieces of legislation face uphill battles in the GOP-controlled Senate, and President Trump has threatened to veto the bills.

However, the 2020 Democratic field is filled with candidates pledging to take sweeping action on gun control amid a slew of mass shootings.

“Five years from now, if you have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president, they could just tell all the licensed dealers, ‘You know all that information you’ve been collecting? Send it to the federal government,’ and you have an instant national registration of guns,” Lott Jr. said. 

“I’ve come to the belief that they want to do whatever they can to make it costly for people to have guns,” he added. 

— Julia Manchester