Opponents of the Second Amendment want a national database to use for their own insidious purposes — to take away legal guns when they get the opportunity.
A cautionary tale emerged from the rubble of Afghanistan, which is still reeling from the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2021. According to the Washington Times, the Taliban regime in Kabul is utilizing firearms records to track down supporters of the former Western-backed government that collapsed when Americans pulled out.
Many in the country saw the possibility for a brighter future without the yoke of the barbaric Taliban around their necks. They risked life and limb to assist U.S. efforts to drag the nation into the 21st century and away from al-Qaeda and supporters of Osama bin Laden.
Now they face retribution from the victorious Taliban.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) recently revealed that friendly groups such as the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) face backlash from the fundamentalist regime.
Investigators found that “the Taliban are going after former ANDSF on a daily basis. They search their homes, and if they cannot find the individual, they will go after their family members. They punish their family until the person they are looking for surrenders.”
And how is the new government finding their targets?
A former member of the National Police said that Taliban radicals came to his home after getting access to official firearms records. The U.S.-backed government kept the data, and now it has fallen into the absolutely wrong hands.
As the former official explained, “they are looking for everything now because there were systems showing which pistol or whatever belonged to whom.”
This is very bad news for former security personnel who tried to give the nation, especially its women and religious minorities, a fighting chance in the face of harsh fundamentalism. The U.S. airlifted roughly 79,000 Afghans out of the country when the previous government collapsed, but there is no word on how many of those rescued were security forces.
Afghans confirmed to SIGAR auditors that they are still being sought after and punished for aiding the former government. One recounted relocating four times before fleeing to another province where he hoped his background would not follow him.
The Taliban does not have a good record when it comes to dealing with dissent, and the specter of mass executions still rings out from recent history.
But in the U.S., it is the Second Amendment that is the cornerstone of gun rights and freedoms. Without it, liberties would be gone faster than last week’s garbage. Americans should never forget — not for one day — that anti-gun zealots want nothing more than to take away every gun, even from law-abiding Americans.
Okay, not every single Second Amendment opponent wants to go that far. But enough do, and they would cloak it in terms of being in the public interest or for our own safety.
But the result would be the same. And how would this confiscation be accomplished? Through registrations and databases, of course.
Furthermore, the only people who would be harmed by these actions would be law-abiding citizens who followed edicts they disagreed with and registered their weapons anyway. The criminal element is not about to put their guns into a national database, that is certain.
Cautionary tales exist for a reason, and the one emerging from Afghanistan sends a clear warning. Pro-Second Amendment advocates are absolutely right to resist backdoor efforts to create a national gun registry. Its existence would bring us a step closer to a situation no freedom-loving American wants to see.
