Currently, there is no federal requirement that handguns be registered. Proposals would require that all handguns be registered to their owner in a system similar to the registration of automobiles. Registration would provide a paper trail on each handgun as it is transferred from owner to owner.

• Registration of handguns would greatly enhance the ability of law enforcement to track handguns used in crimes and reduce handgun trafficking.
   
• Registration would provide the necessary incentive for unlicensed sellers to perform background checks and to report stolen guns, so that they are not personally associated with the subsequent use in criminal activity.
   
• Registration is a common sense approach to reducing the flow of illegal weapons. Guns like automobiles or other potentially deadly products are uniquely dangerous and it makes sense that their sale or transfer ought to be recorded.

• Registration of handguns is the first step to confiscation of lawfully owned handguns.
   
• Registration would be ineffective in stopping gun crimes, as it would not pertain to the 65 million handguns already in circulation.

• Eighty percent (80%) of Americans questioned favor mandatory registration of handguns.
  
  SOURCE: SMITH, 2000
   

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 Gun Laws
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