Reply #116: Again, no one is proposing eliminating NICS.

[gorfle]

Do you see the unnecessary cost and tracking which would be required to track people down and replace their DL every time status is changed even though the vast, vast majority of those people have no intention of buying a gun? This would require enactment and implementation at the state level...every state. Privacy wouldn't/couldn't be maintained. As it is every state has NICS reporting already in place, implemented, and most importantly already funded.

Personally, I don't CARE if privacy is maintained. In my original rendition of the idea, I'd just put a big green "F" on your ID and call it done. If you have the F you can buy a gun, otherwise, no.

But other people here complained that this would be used to discriminate against people without the F. So, the way to fix this is to encrypt the F so that you can't tell by casually looking whether or not someone is illegible to own a firearm or not.

Here is a very common scenario. In most states when a divorce is filed, a restraining order is automatically part of the filings and temporary orders, even when there is no history of, or fear of abuse...it's just part of the process.

Then the process should be changed. If there is no history or fear of abuse, then why is there a restraining order issued anyway?

This restraining order makes it illegal for the respondent or petitioner to buy a gun. So now you must get the new, prohibited mark. You are then stopped on your way home from the DVM for not using your turn signal. The officer immediately knows you are prohibited and goes on a higher alert. Your privacy and possible safety have now been compromised. Strike the ticket. You go to BlockBuster and rent a movie, the BlockBuster guy now knows you are prohibited, again so much for privacy.

If a police officer stops you today, they are going to know your criminal background and consequently whether or not you are illegible to own a firearm. They may not know your past mental history, but my guess is there are far more people ineligible to own firearms because of their criminal history rather than their mental history.

Unless the guy at BlockBuster has an decryption device, and you watch them process it, they won't be able to tell your firearm owning status.

This entire plan is described as a simple thing. It is so completely not simple. The implementation would take decades or longer.

Why?!?! All the state ID issuing office has to do is use the existing NICS system and encode "YES" or "NO" on the back of your state-issued ID! What is so hard about this?

NICS is already funded at both state and federal level. The only people effected by NICS are people who want to buy or sell a gun during a given year probably <10% of the population.
And therein is the beauty of the system. By pre-screening everyone, instead of just people who own firearms, you preserve firearm ownership anonymity.

I'm not saying your idea wouldn't work, only that it will never get funded, it would be an unnecessary duplication of services.

What services would be duplicated?