Well that didn’t take long. The Commander in Chief’s gun controlling zeal has evidently already reached into the military ranks. According to a report received from the wife of an active duty lieutenant (not pictured above) who is stationed in Indiana, the Army intends to register the firearms owned not only by servicemen and -women, but by their spouses and children as well . . .
To protect the careers of those involved, no names or base locations can be used here. Suffice it to say, though, that a gun rights organization with which I’m associated received a rather frantic call from an Army spouse after her husband received an email from his Captain. As she relays it, the email asked for a full list of all firearms (including make, model and serial number) owned by her husband and any member of the family.
According to the report, the email went out to all members of the unit, whether or not they live on-base. The lieutenant in question lives with his family off-base.
The implications of such a request are fairly staggering. It would seem to violate the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act’s provision against the creation of a gun registry. Here’s the relevant section of the law:
No such rule or regulation prescribed [by the Attorney General] after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or disposition be established. Nothing in this section expands or restricts the Secretary’s authority to inquire into the disposition of any firearm in the course of a criminal investigation.
Of course, the President may have made the determination that, in his capacity as Commander in Chief, he can order the creation such a registry within the military without the involvement of the Attorney General.
Again, we have not yet seen the email that’s been described to us by the military spouse in question. Yet. But we’d very much like to confirm the validity of this report.
[We have received a copy of a 2011 memo sent to troops at Ford Hood. Click here to view that required troops to register their personally owned firearm (POF). This is the first we’ve heard of the practice spreading to POW registration off-base.]
That said, a two-year implementation phase sounds about right. Anyway, if you’re an active duty service member and have received such a request order via email through the chain of command, please forward it to guntruth@me.com.
We will, of course, keep your identity in the strictest confidence.