Interesting - that puts McCain on the negative side of every hot button I have.

I'm mostly agnostic on the train wreck that is American immigration policy. But McCain flat out sucks on the 1st and 2nd Amendments.

McCain. Don't get me started. Train wreck is right, because that's what we can expect if the man is elected president.

I tried to vote him out last time, but he's so entrenched, no one real will run against him.

He's a poster-child for term limits.

Background checks are perhaps the most dangerous threat there is to our gun rights at this time. Actually it's not so much the background checks that are the problem, but the fact that for some inexplicable reason they always seem to need the serial number of the gun to check your background. In other words it's just back door registration. Registration is inevitably followed by confiscation. So if I were writing a commercial to counter a law like this, I would tell people that if they vote for this law, they'll loose their gun rights sooner rather than later, and the fact that they require serial numbers is proof that its about registration not background checks. We already have de facto registration of new purchases in the form of dealer record of sale requirements.

To Critic:

Actually the background check does not transmit firearm serial numbers to NICs. The Dealer records the sale (yes, including the serial number) and keeps it in a permanent file of Form 4473's.

The Forms remain with the dealer and CAN be used for trace requests or reviewed for dealer compliance, but they are NOT (as your post implies) harvested wholesale for 'registration' purposes.

Just thought I's clarify that for the readers out there.

USCitizen

The dealer record of sale IS registration of new gun sales. Just because the registration records are distributed doesn't mean the guns aren't registered. If one of these days a law is passed to register or confiscate guns, these records will be used to find the owners. If you claim you no longer have the gun, then like it is with some other laws the burden of proof of innocence will probably be shifted to you and if you don't have a good excuse, like you sold it in a private sale, then you'll probably be convicted of hiding it. A million guys reporting their guns lost a few days before or after a registration law is passed probably won't get off. If you bought ammo for it recently or your mother in law saw you with it, your excuse might not fly. One also wonders if the ATF copies these records when they do their "compliance checks"