Green Stripe and the Charleston Massacre
I’ve been advancing an idea for a universal background check system used in firearms transfers. This is a system that could not be used as a defacto gun, or gun owner registration scheme. That alone means that Bloomberg’s minions don’t like it. This concept could be used in private and commercial firearms sales& transfers without having to involve a federal firearms licensee. It doesn’t need an internet connection or a smart device would be required. Even the average Joe can judge if the prospective buyer is legal, or a prohibited person. The system is as simple as a colored stripe on the driver’s license or non driver’s ID.
Green= GO!, Yellow= SLOW DOWN. No stripe means the person has to use the federal background check system through a gun shop.
This proposal would be phased in over a period of about 7 years as people renew their driver’s licenses. It works much like the standard background check you go through to get your state issued carry permit. By default, whenever the state issues, or renews your drivers license, or non-drivers identification card, they would run another background check to see if you are a prohibited possessor as defined under current federal law. Your license would include a green stripe at the top or side indicating you are in compliance with firearms purchase standards if everything checks out, and you are over the age of 21. Those over 18, but under 21, those who have had their rights restored, legal resident aliens, and others who are legal to possess& purchase firearms, but might have some restrictions, or might need to provide additional supporting documentation would have a yellow stripe indicating generally legal, but slow down& take a closer look.
A number of conditions make a person ineligible to purchase a firearm. A person may not legally possess a firearm if they have been convicted of a felony, have a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, have been adjudicated as mentally incompetent, have been found guilty of a crime by reason of insanity, or if they are in the country illegally. Ideally, these folks would have a red stripe on their license, however the Supreme court has held that it is unlawful to identify felons, as it would be a scarlet letter. So instead they would have a plain old drivers license with no stripe.
What about those who object to having a stripe on their license? They can opt out of the green stripe system. They would be precluded from private firearms sales. They would require a background check at the time of sale and the FBI would have a record of the gun transfer.
What happens if you’ve been convicted of a crime? Whenever you are arrested for a serious crime, such as a felony, you are normally taken into custody. You are arraigned and have a bail hearing. Upon posting bail, the court takes your drivers license. If it had a green or yellow stripe, then they punch a hole with a special punch, and possibly emboss it with the seal of the court to indicate your rights have been suspended.
Suspended! That’s outrageous! I have a right to keep& bear…
Yes you do, but the moment you are indicted for a felony, or any other disqualifying offense, you are already prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law. The same process could be applied to a person involuntarily committed to an asylum.
Once the charges are sorted out, you are in 1 of 3 categories. You could be acquitted, found guilty& incarcerated, or found guilty of a lesser charge and out on probation. If you’ve been acquitted then the state restores your ID at no charge to you. If your convicted or plead down to probation, then sorry. You are in the prohibited class until you can get your rights restored.
How would this prevent a gun registry? The answer is simple. If you screen the majority of adults, then you are going to have a sample of potential gun owners so large that trying to identify the actual gun owners would be near impossible. The government is left looking for a needle in a haystack. As the line from the kids movie goes, “If everybody is special, then no one is special.”
If the drivers license is NICS compliant, meaning if it has a green stripe, then the driver’s license holder is exempt from the federally mandated background check at the gun shop. Even the widow can tell a stripe from no stripe if she is selling off her late husband’s collection to a friend of the family.
How would this “Green Stripe” background check system have changed the outcome in Charleston? The Bowl-Cut bad guy had been arrested and charged with felony drug possession. This case was not yet resolved. That made the murderer a prohibited person. Had the Green Stripe card system been in effect, the driver’s license would have been punched before the murderer was released from jail. The store where the murderer later bought the gun would have immediately known something wasn’t right. They would have known even though the arrest record had not caught up with the FBI database.
Is this system fool proof? No. We keep breeding better fools.
Is it possible to somehow cheat the system? Maybe, but that person is already violating multiple laws and it’s not likely one more will deter them. This system could give honest citizens a way to screen criminals in private firearms transactions, and if the federal laws were changed, could eliminate the 4473. Possibly eliminate the need for a carry permit, which would make the ability to lawfully carry available to more honest citizens who either refuse to pay to exercise a right, or refuse to register as one who carries. It does so without giving an inch to the anti-gun ideologues who want a national register of firearms & firearms owners.
PS, this is written to apply to current laws, not to laws that would exist in a more perfect world.