​What is Backdoor Gun Registration?

This year in Colorado, lawmakers are considering a rule that would require gun owners to buy liability insurance for their firearms. This seems like a good idea on the surface. After all, if someone is injured because of an accidental or negligent firearm discharge, how will they pay for their medical bills?

However, the law has more going on than it seems on the surface. If this law passes, it would effectively create a list of everyone in Colorado who owns a firearm. At that point, law enforcement (anyone with enough technical know-how) will have a registry of all the firearm owners in the state.

This obviously isn’t the stated intention of the bill – it’s just a byproduct. But there’s actually a name for these sorts of laws: backdoor gun registration.

What is Backdoor Gun Registration?

Essentially, any law that’s intended to enhance safety that also creates a list of gun owners can be considered backdoor gun registration. That’s exactly what this Colorado law does. So far, no other states have passed laws requiring gun insurance, although the City of San Jose has in California.

Many gun control supporters have asked what the big deal is about creating a backdoor gun registry. Here’s the thing: gun registries are actually illegal under federal law. Thanks to the Brady Act, passed in 1993, gun owners don’t need to worry about any agents of the US federal government keeping track of their firearms. While states are free to pass their own registries, most of them adhere to the Brady Act’s protections.

Gun insurance isn’t the only type of backdoor gun registration out there. I’ve previously written about how Utah passed a bill to make firearm-related credit card codes illegal. These kinds of codes would also functionally create a backdoor gun registry.

Final Thoughts

In an ironic twist, gun registries can actually make the public less safe from gun violence. These kinds of databases can become fodder for criminals who want to steal guns. In  California, for example, hackers stole the personal information of 192,000 registered gun owners. Hackers can then sell this information to criminals, who can use the data to target gun owners’ homes for theft.

What’s more, some research has shown that most people sent to jail for gun crimes don’t even acquire their guns legally. These people aren’t likely to get insurance for their firearms, and any insurance that a gun owner had for their personal firearms would be moot if the gun is stolen.

I’m sure that the authors of this bill had good intentions. But they’ve overlooked some critical pitfalls in their plans. Hopefully, Colorado and other states considering these types of laws can come up with a better alternative.