I guess the English experience has repeated itself.

What a surprise.

Nice to be part of "the clutter", though. Love that word.

The law worked perfectly. It reduced the number of gun owners by increasing hassles and expenses, and thereby will eventually decrease political support for gun rights.

Oh, you mean it didn't work to decrease crime. Whether a complete national or UN private gun ban would reduce crime is something they will probably have to wait a few decades before they get a chance to try.

“There were nearly 1.5 million active gun licenses in Massachusetts in 1998,” the AP reported. “In June [2002], that number was down to just 200,000.”

This should count as evidence that gun control and firearm licensing and fee schemes suppress a constitutionally-protected right. Combined with the failure of any gun control scheme to show it serves any public good, it should provide evidence that gun control is only about suppressing constituationally guaranteed rights.

The huge drop seemed telling to me as well, but then digging a little deeper raised some questions. It seems much of the drop was from people who moved out of state, died, or sold all their guns years ago, and just didn't update the license info.

But another surprising explanation might be that apparently the license law gave no authority to ticket or punish those who violated it. An attempt to pass an act to give teeth to the law apparently failed in the legislature. Consequently many people may have simply decided not to bother complying with the law.

Originally, those gun licenses were granted and valid forever. At some point, the MA GA decided to give them expiration dates. Many people just don't know this, including a relative of mine who was quite surprised when I told him.

Still, its been established that the more hoops to jump through, the fewer people jump. These same people who demand hoops for gun owners decry them for voters. No ID should be required to exercise the right to vote! You must have an ID to exercise the right to own a gun! No poll taxes to vote! Big fees to own a gun!