During Judiciary Committee hearings for universal background checks Gabby Giffords’ associate Robyn Thomas made clear the expanded checks are only the “first step.”

Thomas is the executive director of Giffords Law Center.

She praised the introduction of universal background checks, via H.R. 8, and stressed that there are other steps the Democrat majority can take on gun control after the checks are in place.

On January 13, 2019, Breitbart News reported that universal background checks are unenforceable without a gun registry. The government cannot be sure that guns are not changing hands unless it knows where every gun, and every gun owner, is at all times.

This pattern has played out clearly in California, which adopted universal background checks in the early 1990s. They now have firearm registration, firearm confiscation laws, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a requirement to acquire a gun safety certificate from the state before buying a gun, an “assault weapons” ban, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, a ban on campus carry, and controls on the purchase of ammunition, among other things.

While universal background checks open the flood gates to more gun control, they would not have prevented a single mass shooting in the U.S. during the 21st century. This is because nearly every mass shooter in the last two decades acquired his guns via a background check. The exceptions are those who stole their guns.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.