In Pennsylvania it is actually illegal for any government or police agency to keep a registry of firearms.

All transfers of handguns in Pennsylvania are required to go through the Pennsylvania Instant Check System (PICS) and the Pennsylvania State Police keep a "Sales Database" of all handguns purchased within the Commonwealth. These records are supposed to be destroyed within a few months. The records were not being destroyed and a suit was filed. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed with the Pennsylvania State Police that because the database is not a complete record of all handgun ownership (people bringing handguns into the state do not have to register them), it does not violate the law.

Even to the casual observer, this clearly violates the spirit of the law by maintaining a database. So the law is circumvented or ignored by the very people entrusted with enforcing laws.

And to add insult to injury, the National Instant Check System (NICS) is free. PICS charges for the service and that fee is added to your purchase price. But that is the bureaucratic mentality in Pennsylvania: never pass up an opportunity to “tax” something.

The bottom line is we do have a form of gun registration but only for the law abiding citizen who buys from a licensed dealer. So for all of you hoplophiles out there, don't worry about Obama enacting gun registration, it's already here.

I am confused about gun registration. I thought that we did not have gun registration but I continually see references to it in the news. Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields stated that he "can't wait until the NRA picks up a client whose gun shows up at a murder scene". (Tribune-Review 07/22/09 "Court upholds city's gun ordinance") Aside from the arrogance of his statement, this presumes that the gun is traceable. If it is traceable, then there must be a record (or defacto registration) of the owner/purchaser.

In an article that appeared in June's NRA magazine, "America's 1st Freedom" titled "Downing Out Freedom" Marshall Lewin writes, "...police read to (Central Connecticut State University student John Wahlberg) a list of firearms that were registered in his name..." (This was in response to his presentation about the Virginia Tech massacre that took a pro-self defense stance.) How did the police know what firearms he had and how many? One way or another, this looks like gun registration to me.

I hope someone can clear up this "tracing/record keeping/registration" thing for me.

I like to incorporate Ted Kennedy's pronunciation, "Obama Osama" and use "Barack Hussein Osama". Ever notice how much the media avoids the name "Hussein"?