A national database of gun owners would be a costly undertaking that serves little purpose, except to compromise citizens privacy, and would do nothing to assist in solving crimes. When such databases were created in other countries, such as Australia, they were later used as a map to revoke gun ownership a few years later. Diaz also advocates reform of import laws and the creation of new laws regarding federal licensing of firearms dealers. Existing laws already regulate sales and imports of firearms, however, and, for every criminal gunrunner who evades them, there are countless retailers who follow the rules. Even with the addition of new laws, retailers will continue following them while gunrunners will not.
Vigorous prosecution is the only sensible solution.
For some reason, however, enforcement of gun laws is in decline. From 1992 to 1998, the number of referrals to federal prosecutors from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for prosecution of federal law violations fell from 9,885 to 5,510 a 44 percent drop. Federal firearms law infringement cases sent to federal, state, and local prosecutors decreased 46.5 percent, from 12,084 to 6,470. Diaz demands, however, not that the government enforce existing law, but that Washington act to phase handguns entirely out of production and eventually confiscate all handguns, from both criminals and law-abiding citizens alike. According to Diaz, after all, firearms are a serious public health hazard, and must be effectively eliminated just like the government did with drugs.