In the odd legal facts department:

Did you know that felons are exempt from gun registration?    Why?   Since it is illegal for a felon to possess firearms, requiring them to register them would violate their 5th amendment rights of self incrimination.   Case is Haynes v. United States.   

Makes sense, but we live in a screwy world where law abiding citizens have to register guns (here in hawaii, anyway) but felons do not.

Wow, that blew my mind.

And, as applied to NFA restricted firearms, felons are not only not required to register them in the first place (nor pay the "tax"), but they are not required to notify BATFE when crossing state lines with such weapons. Only the law-abiding are required to follow the laws, or, ironically, end up becoming felons after wihich they would no longer have to follow the laws they originally broke that made them into felons. 

Hey, I just read about that case in the new American Rifleman magazine. It was covered by James W. Porter II in his column.

It's pretty sickening to think that violent, convicted felons don't have to register firearms, but law abiding citizens have to. It feels like I'm living in a satirical version of America.

Welcome to the new world order

Good read on the subject by Clayton Cramer:

A recurring question that we are asked, not only by gun control advocates, but even by a number of gun owners is, "What's wrong with mandatory gun registration?" Usually by the time we finish telling them about the Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Haynes (1968), they are laughing -- and they understand our objection to registration.

In Haynes v. U.S. (1968), a Miles Edward Haynes appealed his conviction for unlawful possession of an unregistered short-barreled shotgun. His argument was ingenious: since he was a convicted felon at the time he was arrested on the shotgun charge, he could not legally possess a firearm. Haynes further argued that for a convicted felon to register a gun, especially a short-barreled shotgun, was effectively an announcement to the government that he was breaking the law. If he did register it, as 26 U.S.C. sec.5841 required, he was incriminating himself; but if he did not register it, the government would punish him for possessing an unregistered firearm -- a violation of 26 U.S.C. sec.5851. Consequently, his Fifth Amendment protection against self- incrimination ("No person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself") was being violated -- he would be punished if he registered it, and punished if he did not register it. While the Court acknowledged that there were circumstances where a person might register such a weapon without having violated the prohibition on illegal possession or transfer, both the prosecution and the Court acknowledged such circumstances were "uncommon." The Court concluded:

We hold that a proper claim of the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination provides a full defense to prosecutions either for failure to register a firearm under sec.5841 or for possession of an unregistered firearm under sec.5851.

http://www.firearmsandliberty.com/cramer.haynes.html

If you're a liberal, this makes sense!   

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Good read on the subject by Clayton Cramer:

http://www.firearmsandliberty.com/cramer.haynes.html

Thanks HiCarry...very interesting read!

It sounds paranoid to suggest that gun registration records might be used in the future to confiscate guns -- although the second director of Handgun Control, Inc. has stated explicitly that mandatory registration is one of the steps towards prohibition of handgun ownership [13] -- but when we examine how the courts have crippled gun registration laws so that felons are effectively exempt, and only law-abiding citizens need to fear such laws, what other explanation can there be for the continuing plea for mandatory gun registration?

In the odd legal facts department:

Did you know that felons are exempt from gun registration?    Why?   Since it is illegal for a felon to possess firearms, requiring them to register them would violate their 5th amendment rights of self incrimination.   Case is Haynes v. United States.   

Makes sense, but we live in a screwy world where law abiding citizens have to register guns (here in hawaii, anyway) but felons do not.

Ridiculous....