Hawaii may become the first state in the U.S. to add the names of gun owners to an FBI database—or registry—that automatically notifies police, employers and others if a person in the database is arrested, the Associated Press reports.
Under the proposal, the names of gun owners would be added to the FBI’s so-called “Rap Back” database—which catalogues the names of persons in “positions of trust,” such as schoolteachers and bus drivers—and if those individuals ever became prohibited persons barred from owning firearms due to a criminal conviction or even the issuance of a domestic restraining order, police would be automatically notified. The unspecified costs of the program would be borne by gun owners.
Such schemes should send chills down the spine of anyone who cares about their constitutional rights: Owning a firearm isn’t a suspicious act, and firearm owners shouldn’t be singled out for special scrutiny by government monitors.
