The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Since our government(s) have decided and demonstrated that they lack either the needed powers or the will to exercise them, we offer this Registry to the People of the United States of America, so that they can act to protect their brothers and sisters from further harm.

The idea is simple: To paraphrase The Little Red Hen, "If the government won't register dangerous weapons, very well, we'll do it ourselves."

The Constitution provides that the people can "keep" and "bear" arms. It says nothing about any right to hide them or to use them in any context other than that of a well-regulated militia. Everyone knows that the Founders' understanding of personal arms in 1787 ran to flintlock pistols and muskets. Throughout the 19th Century carrying guns was illegal in many jurisdictions, which was rarely challenged. The fact that technology has outrun the imaginations of our forebears should not be a reason to subject modern citizens to a perpetual nightmare of murder and mayhem. None of us owes Gaul to Caesar and none owes his life to Remington or Winchester's shareholders.

COMING SOON. On this site you will find a simple procedure for registering your gun(s), or that-those of your relatives, your neighbors and others. Signup is not yet enabled while this sentence appears.

We're not out to mess with people. Here are the basic rules:

• You will not be identified publicly with registrations; however, you will have to confirm your registration by responding to an email.
• The owners of the guns you register will not be identified on the website by name, precise location or contact data.
• These rules will be followed as long as we are not compelled to release individual names by court order. That said, if you are a junior assistant prosecutor somewhere seeking to advance your career, and regardless of your political views, don't expect that we're weak or easy.
• We will never provide the entire list to anyone, and the data will be stored anonymously in the cloud.

We will use the data we collect only for statistical purposes. We will publish aggregate data and maps showing where the guns are. We'll start with the most offensive weapons, rapid-fire automatic and semi-automatic pistols and rifles, which we view as inappropriate in private hands.

Of course, we anticipate that rules and procedures will evolve. We will facilitate discussion of appropriate uses of the data in the Forums. For example, it has been suggested that in the case of a crime associated with a type of weapon, law enforcement might be able to query the database by ZIP or city in some limited fashion to acquire a list of nearby weapons or arsenals quickly with a court order by appropriate jurisdiction. Dragnet-style searches will never be allowed. To prevent abuse, we will not store data on gender, race, etc.

Finally, we invite you to join us. You can become a member by clicking Join on any page. There is no charge, but as the cost of operating this system will not be zero, we welcome donations. We will also be creating a sponsorship program, wherein all donors will be clearly identified. We will be seeking nonprofit status, so we will not take positions on candidates or legislation.

Credit: Frits Ahlefeldt @ Creative Commons.