Further Proof the Background Check Issue is a Red Herring

Illinois passes more gun control, including ending private transfers. Keep in mind you need to have a license in Illinois to own a gun, and to sell a gun to someone else, they also need to have a license. It requires a background check to obtain a license, and they revoke those licenses if someone commits a crime or otherwise becomes prohibited from owning firearms. It is, under any rational way of thinking, a perfect substitute for instant background checks.

However, that wasn’t enough. The background check issue is a total red herring. The gun control movement pushes universal registration under that rubric because background checks poll a lot better than registration. That’s their true goal. It goes back to what Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign to Save our Phony Baloney Jobs), said in 1976:

“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest. Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved.’ And it’s also true that such statements will tend to defuse the gun-control issue for a time. So then we’ll have to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen that law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time. My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — totally illegal.”

Emphasis mine. Once upon a time, they weren’t so concerned about hiding their end game from the public. Background checks don’t really help them get anywhere. In fact, it probably helps take them backwards in the sense that it would destroy some of their most effective rhetoric without really giving them anything in return. The only things that prevents universal registration is the fact that guns can be bought and sold by people who are not Federal Firearms Licensees. If all transactions were to go through an FFL, we’d have de facto universal registration of all firearms within a generation.

UPDATE: See here. It would seem the private transfer provisions of this law are meaningless, and are being played up to make it seem like they actually won something.