Letter to the Editor - March 1, 2018

Support Federal Assault Weapon Registry

Assault weapons are weapons of mass murder. We must keep the weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill, the deranged, the evil, the careless, felons and drug addicts. To do that we must know where the weapons are (individual owners within the USA). I urge the establishment of a Federal Assault Weapon Registry (in cooperation with local police chiefs throughout the country). All current owners of assault weapons would have to apply for a new license within 60 days (with the local police chief closest to their home address). The local police chief must approve their ownership of an assault weapon. The new registration form would add the following questions: “How do you plan to use the assault weapon?” “Where do plan to store the weapon?” “Are you capable of using an automatic weapon?”

The annual license fee is $100 (renewable annually). This recommendation is only workable if the feds pass a law that states “anyone in possession of an unregistered assault weapon is committing a felony”; punishable by large fine or jail time.

New buyers of any assault weapon must have the approval of their local police chief to complete any sale from a gun sales organization. The seller would do the usual background check, if approved, send a copy of the sales record to the Federal Registry and the buyer would then return to the local police chief for licensing.

It is my hope that this letter would spur interest, debate and action. Confidential knowledge of local assault weapons ownership and potential locations of the weapons could help local law enforcement in emergency situations and, perhaps, prevent school shootings. It places local law enforcement officers in observant positions since they have the best knowledge about local area resident bad/dangerous behavior patterns. I’m sure that the police chief of Parkland, Florida would never have approved the assault weapon sale to Nikolas Cruz.

Walter Olson

Daniel Island