David Kopels Claims Regarding the Manchin-Toomey Amendment are False Bottom Line: In a New York Times op-ed

d published on April 19, 2013, David Kopel erroneously argues that the Manchin-Toomey Amendment would permit the creation of a federal gun registry, in particular of the records on out-of-business dealers. In truth, the Amendment maintains current prohibitions on the creation of a federal gun registry. Background on Kopel: David Kopel is research director of the Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank that counts Jeffrey Coors among its trustees1 and has connections with the American Legislative Exchange Council. Kopel is the co-author of a textbook on the Second Amendment.2 He is an adjunct professor of advanced constitutional law at the Sturm College of Law at Denver University and a policy analyst for the Cato Institute. Kopels claim that the Manchin-Toomey Amendment would have legalized one form of registration that is currently banned is false. Kopels false registry claim generally: The Manchin-Toomey Amendment includes a provision barring the Attorney General from consolidating or centralizing records of gun sales and gun ownership. In an April 15 statement explaining his reasoning, Kopel argued that because this provision refers only to the Attorney General, it must therefore authorize any other governmental entity to create a registry, including the Army or the Department of Health and Human Services.3 The Truth: Federal law expressly and repeatedly prohibits the creation of a gun registry by any government entity or political subdivision, including through the NICS background check database.4 And the Manchin-Toomey Amendment leaves those provisions intact. The Truth: Moreover, both the Secretary of the Army5 and the Secretary of Health and Human Services6 are specifically prohibited from creating a registry of gun ownership. The Truth: The existing prohibitions on government registries extend to the records of retired dealers, and while the ATF houses the records, it is prohibited from centralizing them. The agency has gone to considerable expense to comply with this law, maintaining the records on microfiche rather than in a centralized database.7 Nothing in the Manchin-Toomey Amendment would alter the treatment of these records.

Kopels false claim regarding the use of retired dealer records to create a registry:

Though Kopel argues that the NRA represented the will of its members in opposing background check legislation, in fact, 86% of NRA members support requiring a background check before every gun sale.8
1 2

http://www.i2i.org/board-of-directors.php. Nicholas J. Johnson, David B. Kopel, George A. Mocsary, and Michael P. OShea, Firearms Law & the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy (Aspen, 2012). 3 http://www.volokh.com/2013/04/15/the-pro-gun-provisions-of-manchin-toomey-are-actually-a-bonanza-of-gun-control/ 4 18 USC 926(a); PL 112-55 Division B, Title II. In addition to express prohibitions on the creation of a registry, federal statute requires that records generated by successful background checks be destroyed, and regulation clarifies that the destruction must take place within 24 hours. 18 USC 922(t)(2)(C); 28 C.F.R. 25.9(b)(1)(ii). Another federal regulation specifically states that the NICS background check database cannot be used to create a registry. 28 C.F.R. 25.9(b)(3). 5 Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, Pub. Law 111-383, Section 1062(a) (2010). 6 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 12-110, Sec. 10101(e), March 23, 2010. 7 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/after-gun-crime-weapon-history-takes-time-find 8 http://www.demandaction.org/detail/2013-01-new-polling-from-mayors-against-illegal-guns-finds-w