In New York, Gun Owners Balk At New Handgun Database the headline at npr.org reports. Seems a large number of Empire State gun owners chose not to/forgot to/didn’t know to register or re-register themselves and their handguns with the state government by January 31 as per a new law. After the usual political posturing, the article’s “money shot” arrives in paragraph 16 . . .

As of the deadline, more than 81,000 people – or 20 percent of affected handgun owners in New York – haven’t responded to the state’s request. But New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy argues that concern about this gun database has been overblown. He said felony charges are off the table for now. “We’re not going to take criminal enforcement action, particularly with those people who were unaware of this re-certification process,” Duffy said.

In other words, the liberty of 81k Americans exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms (without government infringement) now depends on the whims of a bureaucrat. And the police. And the politicians who pull their strings.

To be clear, as HP points out in the comments below, “The state government already has all of the pistol permit information at it’s disposal. The difference here is that while the information was retained at the county level, the record keeping has still been spotty, so the State Police were ordered to update the records and create a clean database. Or try to, looks like 81,000 problems came up.”

In the video above, NY Governor Cuomo promises “periodic” checks” on these problematic [sic] gun owners to “check for issues.” And so it begins . . .

Needless to say, if the New York State police go there, if they begin arresting gun owners for the simple crime of not registering or re-registering their handguns with the state, the cops run the risk of starting something very dangerous for all concerned.

Also needless to say, the civilian disarmament industrial complex is on board with the idea of enforcing this new law.

The next big question is how this registry is going to be used and who’s going to follow up with gun owners. Laura Cutilletta, legal director for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence [above], believes it could be a game-changer for police. “This kind of tool seems like something law enforcement would really welcome and would make a priority if they can,” Cutilletta said. “Because to know who is determined to be dangerous already and has a gun — I mean, what better information could you give law enforcement than something like that?”

How do the police know who is “determined to be dangerous?” What exactly does that mean?

I suspect that Ms. Cutilletta would argue — perhaps privately — that anyone who failed to register themselves and their guns with New York state is, de facto, “determined to be dangerous.”

Folks, this could get ugly. In terms of government overreach, it already is.