Answers to some gun owner restriction ideas

* Universal background checks: It's a good idea to make background checking available to folks for private sales. Making this a law isn't such a great idea. Partnering with today's law abiding citizens inspires trust and may actually win some votes. Burdening those same folks and requiring registrations that generally inspire suspicion and opposition is a bad idea.

* License to continue owning or to sell a gun owned as personal property: Imagine that you are one of the approximately 80-100 million gun owners in the US. You haven't assaulted or killed anyone. Due to a mistake by folks similar to those who put Senator Kennedy on the no-fly list, you have to spend time and money to not have your property confiscated. Bad idea.

* License to buy a gun: At the time of purchase a licensed dealer must run a background check regardless of where the sale takes place. The BGC includes the FBI NICS database according to applicable laws in your state of residence before you take possession. At this time, private sellers in most states have no access to FBI or law enforcement databases to run a background check at all. I favor making these available at a local law enforcement office for free to be financed by the federal DoJ. Some jurisdictions now require a license to buy and, in some places, that license stands in for BGC. When a license is good for a year or even 5 years a person may have their circumstances change and become prohibited. Without a BGC, a licensed but prohibited person can take possession.

* Licenses, registrations and government lists in general: The registration of general small arms weapons other than full-auto type rifles and pistols and machine guns has always been universally unpopular and is vote loser. A generic lifetime arms license is applicable to all otherwise unprohibited persons and is available for public inspection at 701 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20408.