Camel’s Nose Under The Tent

Dear Editor,

Greensboro has gotten involved in a new program called “Save-A-Casing.” The way it works is you give over two expended casings to the Police Department and “the casings will be entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN).”

Let me repeat that, you turn over two expended shells to the Police Department who will enter them, along with your weapon information, into the National Integrated Ballistic Network. Correct me if I’m wrong but that sounds an awful lot like a firearms registration system under a different name.

The system is currently voluntary, and the concept sounds like a great thing. But as my grandfather always said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

As with any government program, voluntary or not, it will eventually become mandatory. (Go ahead, Chrissy, start calling me paranoid.) I agree that it is something that would help law enforcement officers (LEO) get stolen and lost weapons back to their owners, but it will also give them a list of who owns firearms. And since we are talking about the government, at all levels, one has to wonder how long it would be before they start abusing it. After all, when the Social Security number system was first established, the card read ‘not for identification purposes’ yet that has morphed into your ID number.

As I said earlier, people will call this paranoid, but remember who we are talking about. How many local governments are trying to pass gun registration or even ban private ownership altogether? How many local governments pass laws making it next to impossible to have a firearm on your person while walking the streets? “Oh, we have LEO to protect us.” Yes, they do their best to protect us but through no fault of their own they are too many minutes away when seconds count.

LEO brings them in, but the politically motivated District Attorneys appear to have little or no desire to punish those that break the law.

Robert Heinlein said, “An armed society is a polite society.” And with all the illegal aliens invading our country and the growing number of attacks and thefts taking place in broad daylight, the question to ask is “where is the protection I pay for?” Note: It’s not LEOs’ fault. They try.

I love my country but fear and mistrust my government

Carpe diem,

Alan Marshall