But your solution, which you have made repeatedly on these pages, is registration of all handguns. First, to clear up any misconceptions, let's dispense with the notion that the law will have any affect on criminals. In fact, the US Supreme Court ruled in
Hayes v US, 1968 that a criminal could not be prosecuted for failing to register a gun since registration violates his right against self-incrimination. Since the law
cannot be enforced against criminals, then who does the law target?
There are a couple of things the law can accomplish:
First, the law can be used to raise revenue. By making those persons who are already inclined to obey the law pay a fee for not being criminals, the state can generate much needed revenue. The key becomes in making the fee onerous enough that to discourage firearms ownership in the troublesome lower classes but not so high to encourage widespread civil disobedience.
Second, the law can be used to criminalize gun owners who have been forgetful or otherwise innocent of criminal intent when their registration lapses by making them ineligible to renew and their firearms forever contraband. (If the scheme sounds familiar, it is Mayor Daley's.)
The second part of the problem is how do bad guys get their guns? Unless it is something turned out in a basement workshop, all guns start out legally manufactured someplace. In the US there is almost ironclad accountability from the time a serial number is stamped into steel until the first retail purchase. From manufacture, the distribution chain involves only licensed persons or government agencies up to sitting in the showcase at the gun store. Any diversion prior requires theft, collusion, or some type of criminal activity.
At the point of the first retail sale, which must be done by an FFL, a prospective buyer fills out a Form 4473 and submits to a NICS check. At this point if someone is denied purchase they are merely turned away. There is no follow up! A criminal could be number one on the FBI's most wanted list, use his real name and social security number and no law enforcement agency will do anything as a result of the felony attempt to purchase a firearm. The only thing that happens is the criminal knows for sure he is in the database.
At this point, having been denied, and knowing with certainty that no one will alert his parole officer, the criminal can enlist the aid of a family member, girlfriend or an acquaintance to make a "straw purchase" on his behalf. This is, in fact, a crime, but most of the risk is born by the sometimes unwitting purchaser, it's their signature on the 4473. This turns out to be the way crooks get most of the new guns.
Guns can last an incredibly long time. I routinely shoot guns that are over a hundred years old. Thus, there is a vast supply of used guns on the secondary market. I bought a pristine Colt Super .38 from an old lady at a garage sale my ex-wife dragged me to. I gave her her asking price. She let me know right off I wasn't going to get her, she knew "...exactly what her late husband had paid for it before the War, and she wasn't taking a dime less!" Local newspapers, co-workers, anywhere anyone might peddle anything, among the old baby furniture and heirloom antiques, will be Grandpa's old hunting guns, revolvers maiden aunts kept in their sock drawers, even collector grade Colts. If it was made before 1898, it may not even a "firearm" anymore under Federal law. Like this 1877 Colt.
In most cases someone selling under these circumstance is unable to determine with certainty if the prospective buyer is eligible to buy a firearm or not. Even if you know the buyer, you may not know that your Uncle Leroy slapped the shit outta Aunt Grace back in 1953 when he was drinking and had a domestic violence misdemeanor on his record. He may not know unless he has tried to buy a gun at retail since September of 1996. There is no mechanism for a person who is not in the business of selling guns to find out. NICS is not available to the general public. It would be handy if you were a landlord to screen potential renters, wondering about someone you, or your daughter, are dating.
That last source, the ones crooks use most, is each other. Guns are easily fenced when they are the loot from a burglary. Is there anyplace in Ohio where you could not find someone to sell you dope inside an hour? Is there a dope dealer who wouldn't sell you a gun just as quickly?
Therein lies the real problem, there is not much you can do on the legal side to affect the illegal market. Most of what can reasonably can be done has been done in most places and none of the unreasonable ones have worked where they have been tried. Even in the most authoritarian dictatorial regimes with absolute bans on gun ownership neither the jack booted government thugs nor the criminals suffer from an arms shortage. You don't have to look further than Mexico to see that no gun law, on any side of any border hinders the cartels from acquiring and using the latest in military grade weapons from five continents.