What's Wrong With This Picture?

James Alan Fox, professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University, has a column in today's Boston Herald, in which he responds to some of the e-mails he has received from gun owners, critical of his views on gun control. As could be predicted, what the reader is left with is little more than a classic example "I support the second amendment, BUT...".

I won't bother flogging the dead horse over anything he has to say on this matter - this time. But, when I read something like this paragraph, well, some things are too good to let go by the wayside.

Aside from some paranoid view of government intrusion, what really is the danger of firearms registration or of background checks on all gun sales We register automobiles, and qualify and license drivers; why not do the same with guns and their owners It makes no sense to prevent law enforcement from tracking firearms transfers that fuel the illegal market. We could even install LoJack-style, GPS devices into new guns to curtail trade in stolen firearms.

Yeah...how fucking paranoid can we be, huh?