A Citizen reader shared an

e-mail warning with us in last week's paper about a pending bill in the

U.S. Senate that seeks to mandate hand gun registration and taxation through

an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Since I had received

the same message through a conservative listing service, I went on a mission

to check it out myself. So many of the e-mails we get are bogus urban

legends or outright lies. You can never be too careful in substantiating

what you read. Here's what I found out about U.S. Senate bill 2099.

First, it's a real bill, introduced by a real senator, one Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

The bill was read twice on Feb. 24 of this year, then sent to the Committee

on Finance for further consideration. I can vaguely remember a media ripple

last winter that the Democrats were seeking to register all gun owners,

but I guess I just assumed the revolutionaries had been suppressed and

the second amendment to the constitution was still safe. Now I feel like

Dustin Hoffman in "Marathon Man." Is it safe?

According to the summary of S. 2099, the Handgun Safety and Registration

Act of 2000, if passed, will amend chapter 53 of the Internal Revenue

Code to require the registration of handguns in the National Firearms

Registration and Transfer Record. The resulting data will be shared with

all federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. In addition, the

amendment will provide for the "imposition of [a] $5 transfer tax

on handguns and a $50 tax upon the making of each handgun."

In Sen. Reed's own words on the floor of the U.S. Senate chamber, the

bill "would require registration of all handguns, including those

currently in private possession, and would make it a felony for any person

to transfer a handgun to another individual without prior law enforcement

approval."

Sen. Reed feels that law enforcement's enhanced ability to trace handguns

used in crimes will help catch criminals and help "prevent handguns

from falling into criminal hands in the first place." As you know,

handguns don't "fall" into a criminal's hands. They are either

sold to a criminal, which is already covered by prohibitive statutes,

or they are stolen BY the criminal, during the commission of a crime.

Emotional rhetoric is driving this train.

According to the S. 2099, "any person possessing any firearm...not

registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record...

shall register such handgun within one year of the date of the enactment

of this [bill]." For purposes of assessing the transfer tax, "any

registration of such handgun...shall be considered a transfer of such

handgun." Even, apparently, if you are transferring the gun to yourself.

No grandfathers, here.

Senator Reed assures us in his introductory speech that the Handgun Safety

and Registration Act of 2000 will accomplish its intended goals "without

restricting in any way the possession or sale of hunting rifles or shotguns

used by law-abiding sportsmen across the country."

The only people this bill is going to restrict are the law-abiding handgun

owners of this country. Criminals are going to continue to obtain their

weapons through illegal means. Since, by definition, law-abiding citizens

don't commit crimes, what possible gain is made from passage of this bill?

Money and knowledge.

The Internal Revenue service gets a windfall of $5 per handgun already

owned, $50 per handgun that is made, and the knowledge of who you are,

what you have, and where you live.

That makes it so much easier when gun control revolutionaries take their

"peace train" that extra step, on to your doorstep, and demand

that you relinquish your weapons or face arrest.

Registration is just one station stop away from confiscation thus the

e-mail warning and the call to action.

Gun control is not about controlling the criminal; it is about controlling

the populace. For all those who've questioned through recent history how

an atrocity such a Nazi Germany could come in to being, read up. Several

years prior, all civilian weapons were confiscated. Prior to that, all

guns were registered. In even more recent history, Great Britain demanded

registration, and a few years laterconfiscation.

The only thing that separates us from tyranny is the ability to defend

ourselves against it. Those who would sell our constitution, and our sovereignty,

for a buck and a bit of our business should be stopped.

I have a complete list of e-mail contact information on every senator

on the Committee for Finance available at your request. If this is just

a bill languishing in committee that will never go anywhere anyway, as

an aide for Sen. Richard Luger (R-Ind.) suggests, why not kill it publicly

and end all doubt? Let's derail this train.

E-mail lobbying, by grassroots citizens no less now there's an urban legend.

[Your comments are welcome: [email protected].]