Mike
Site Co-Founder
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SNIP
The question of whether or not gun registration violates the Second Amendment may be settled by the courts in the future. But the recent use of prosecutorial discretion to prosecute a Utah man for an innocent and non-material mistake on gun dealer transfer forms demonstrates the danger of decentralized gun registration by way of ATF Form 4473, especially since the court of appeals in this case affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the charge only because "an alien registration number is not 'information required for a background check' as contemplated by Utah Code section 76-10-526(4)(b)." State v. Kidus Chane Yohannes, 2009 UT App 270, P11 (Utah Ct. App. 2009).
In other words, if Mr. Yohannes had made a error in writing his driver license number on the ATF Form 4473, the prosecutor would have gotten the green light to proceed on the fraud charges, even though the prosecutor admitted fraud charges would likely fail at trial.
Please CLICK the "subscribe" button at http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m9d27-Utah-appeals-court-rules-typo-on-gun-purchase-form-not-a-crime
SNIP
The question of whether or not gun registration violates the Second Amendment may be settled by the courts in the future. But the recent use of prosecutorial discretion to prosecute a Utah man for an innocent and non-material mistake on gun dealer transfer forms demonstrates the danger of decentralized gun registration by way of ATF Form 4473, especially since the court of appeals in this case affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the charge only because "an alien registration number is not 'information required for a background check' as contemplated by Utah Code section 76-10-526(4)(b)." State v. Kidus Chane Yohannes, 2009 UT App 270, P11 (Utah Ct. App. 2009).
In other words, if Mr. Yohannes had made a error in writing his driver license number on the ATF Form 4473, the prosecutor would have gotten the green light to proceed on the fraud charges, even though the prosecutor admitted fraud charges would likely fail at trial.