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I've read Lott's work. It's very well done. However, Lott was primarily concerned with assessing the effectiveness of shall issue laws. Of course you will notice that the shall issue system requires both training and registration (not of guns but of owners) in most (if not all) instances. Such registered owners are almost never involved in criminal activity. I am not opposed to the ownership of guns by registered and trained citizens.
Odd how no one balks at the government maintaining finger prints and other data on CCP holders! Why don't we do this for all gun owners?

Why don't we do this for all gun owners?.........

Wellllll, duhhhhh. Do you REALLY think that the criminals will go for it?

It's truly sad that an 'educator' is SOOOO dead-set against learning/expanding horizons.

Have you addressed as to whether there is any evidence that gun registration reduces crime? Generally, the burden of proof is on the party that wants to impose another inconvenience, to give it the most benign spin possible. I personally think that the suggestion that gun registration represents a major step towards a JBT state is way overdone, but even more overdone is the suggestion that registration will accomplish much that is positive in curbing the the Hobbesian condition. It is just one of those iconic cultural issues, that carries a lot of other baggage.

"I've read Lott's work."

My mistake...I believe that the stats on the deterrence and prevention of crime by the lawful use of firearms comes from Dr. Gary Kleck. You are indeed correct about the nature of Lott's work.

You cannot then deny where it leads...and it is NOT to gun confiscation, which registration would bring.

"I am not opposed to the ownership of guns by registered and trained citizens."

Of course not. Such records make your wishes of confiscation that much easier, should some official or other decide to do it. It also makes it much easier for such officials to determine what kind, how many , and what the operating system of such guns will be, should they wish.

"Odd how no one balks at the government maintaining finger prints and other data on CCP holders! Why don't we do this for all gun owners?"

Actually, most of us hate the extra paperwork, expense, and loss of privacy that it requires. Like many laws restricting our rights, however, we simply swallow them as necessary steps to get where we need to be. Trust me, if not for the bleatings of the willing sheep and irrationally terrified gungrabbers out there, those laws would be a damn sight different. See Vermont state laws, for an example.