Democrats Should Call Republicans’ Bluff on Gun Registry

The House of Representatives conducted its first hearing on gun violence in eight years on Wednesday, addressing the overwhelmingly popular policy of universal background checks. Predictably, not a single Republican on the House Judiciary Committee spoke in favor of H.R. 8, which would require universal background checks on all private sales of firearms save transactions between immediate family members. Instead, Republicans made a novel and curious argument against the legislation, suggesting that a national registry of firearms is required to properly…