In the seventies, a few backwater communities with a gun nut majority in each passed local ordinances requiring everybody to own a firearm. The NRA's position at that time on such ordinance was opposition to them. The second amendment guaranteed a right to bear arms, but not an obligation to do so. I do not agree that the right to own a gun is an individual right, but at least the position taken by the NRA then is one I can respect. The government required all citizens to purchase a particular product from a private source is fascism.
What is being presented here is not worthy of respect. This is the government requiring that citizens possess firearms, and here we don't see that NRA as a positive organization that offers local classes in gun safety and tries to make sure, perhaps too sure, that gun rights are not violated by legislative bodies, but a cabal of gun manufacturers seeking to use the police power of the government to impose an obligation on citizens to purchase a firearm, either directly or indirectly through taxation in order to make sure that everyone, rich or poor, is armed.
One might ask how that differs from requiring drivers to purchase auto insurance. That would be similar, in some ways, but there would be a critical difference. There would still be no obligation to drive a car. If one does drive a car, not only should that person have auto insurance, but that person should also demonstrate that he knows how to operate a motor vehicle safely. This sounds like a better model for gun ownership than making it a constitutionally protected right, but I digress. Now, if the government required all citizens to own a car, that would be more in line with what Mr. Johnson is advocating.
Polls show that most Americans want background checks on individuals seeking to purchase a firearm. This is a common sense measure aimed at keeping a weapon out of the hands of a psychopath would shoot up a public school, a women's dormitory or a movie theater, but the NRA, as the association protecting the profits of gun manufacturers, opposes this kind of common sense. Now if we do what Mr. Johnson proposes, the government would make sure that such people that a background check might prevent from having access to a firearm would have a firearm.
To paraphrase Joe the Plumber, Smith and Wesson's profits trump our dead children.
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