The idea of a Federal gun registry is incredibly polarizing in America today. Anti-2A folks swear up and down that a national gun registry will somehow, magically cause gun violence to decrease. People who support gun rights rightly oppose a national gun registry because it’s an infringement of their right to privacy and to be left alone by their government if they haven’t committed a crime.

But what if both sides of this issue are arguing about an irrelevant issue?

Irrelevant? Yes, arguing about a national gun registry is probably a pointless discussion to have. Why? Because the government already has a scary amount of data about people. Christian Greiner writes,

If you use the Google Search Engine or Chrome Browser, Google knows everything you have searched for online. If you use Gmail they read contents of your inbox. If you use Google Drive they know the contents of your documents. The very reason they are so profitable is because they know so much about you.

Yet, as off-putting as it is to visit a website and have their ads follow me around all day via Google’s cookies AdSense, that’s not what I’m most concerned about.

What bothers me is the view from my bedroom window every morning. About a mile away from my home, the NSA has built the world’s most powerful data center. It’s heavily fortified, cost over $2 billion to build, and is five times the size of the US capital.

Greiner continues:

Think the search engines will hold your data private [from the Federal government if it’s requested]? Not likely. Since 2001 Yahoo! has worked with the Chinese government in handing over user information on Chinese government critics, resulting in their trials and convictions.

Again, from Greiner:

If a law is passed outlawing a specific firearm I own and its confiscation is mandated, we’re not far from the point at which, whether or not my firearm is registered will be a moot point.

I will continue to oppose anti-2A policies, including universal background checks and registration. I can’t help but think, though, that in many ways these battles have already been lost. Moving forward, we must oppose laws that infringe upon our right to privacy and support laws that right these wrongs.

In this day and age we cannot separate our Second Amendment rights and our right to privacy. The destruction of either would lead to the downfall of both and eventually all our rights.

The fact of the matter is that the Federal government knows much more about U.S. citizens than they are legally allowed to know (check the 10th Amendment), but that isn’t stopping them from compiling information about all of us.

To protect your privacy (and, thus, to protect your firearms), you would be wise to start considering how you use technology to feed your interests and consider multiple privacy methods so that your information stays with you and with no one else.

A few things to look into:

• Replace the Chrome browser with Brave.
• Use a VPN when searching online (like ProtonVPN).
• Use encrypted email like ProtonMail.