Have you guys heard about the Blair Holt Bill yet? It's H.R. 45. I found out about it when a friend of mine sent me an email going around about a bill that will require us to list all firearms we own on our federal income tax returns beginning next year. Now, according to snopes, this tax return thing is false. A proposal to require gun owners to list their firearms on federal income tax returns was in fact part of Senate Bill 2099, way back in 2000, but it didn't make it through committee.
snopes.com: Handgun Safety and Registration Act
But in researching this, I came across Blair Holt. According to the email going around, it has a bunch of insidious provisions, including registry, fingerprinting, submission to physical and mental evaluation. There is a provision stating that you must keep your guns locked up and inaccessible to children under 18, and the government has the right to come and inspect how you're storing your guns. If you're not storing them correctly, you can be fined and imprisoned for up to 5 years.
Now, according to snopes, the part about a federal registry is true. But the part about physical and mental health evaluation is false. You have to certify that you'll keep your firearms inaccessible to anyone under 18, but the part about the government's right of inspection applies to firearms-related business only, not ordinary households. There's still a lot of info to digest though. I recommend looking through the article as well as the actual bill.
Here's the snopes article:
snopes.com: Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act
And here's the actual bill:
GovTrack: H.R. 45: Text of Legislation, Introduced in House