On March 8, 2025, a chilling report was found in the The Times of Israel: the identities and addresses of thousands of Israeli gun owners were leaked online in a hack-and-leak operation tied to Iranian actors. This breach didn't just expose names, it put lives at risk, with the report ominously noting, "Every person with a gun at home is at risk." For Americans who cherish our Second Amendment rights, this incident can't be just a foreign headline we ignore! It's a glaring red flag about the dangers of any government maintaining a registry of gun owners; whether federal or state-level. Here in the United States, where our right to bear arms is a cornerstone that secures our liberty from tyrants, the Israeli leak amplifies a truth we've long warned about: registration leads to vulnerability, and vulnerability invites tyranny... or worse.

Let's start with the federal angle. The U.S. government has a dismal track record when it comes to securing sensitive data. Remember the 2015 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack? That breach saw Chinese hackers compromise the personal information of over 21 million current and former federal employees', contractors', and their families' Social Security numbers, fingerprints, and everything else Uncle Sam kept on his people. Then there's the recent IRS leak by Charles Littlejohn, a contractor who in 2023 admitted to stealing and leaking tax records of high-profile individuals, including then-former and now-current President Donald Trump. If the federal government, with all its resources, can't protect its own databases, why should we expect a national gun registry to be any safer? A list of every gun owner in America would be a goldmine for foreign adversaries like Russia or China, not to mention domestic criminals, drug cartels, terrorists, or anti-gun zealots. The Israeli case proves it: once the data's out, it's a weapon in the wrong hands.

But here's where it gets even scarier: state-level gun registries might be more dangerous than a federal one. As gun owners, we usually argue for more state control rather than federal control, but this might be different. States, with their patchwork budgets and varying cybersecurity standards, are often less equipped to fend off sophisticated attacks. Whereas the federal government at least has agencies like the NSA and CISA in its corner; most states are lucky to have a handful of overworked IT staffers. Look at California's 2022 debacle, where the state accidentally exposed the personal info of concealed carry permit holders due to a "dashboard" glitch. Now imagine every state with its own gun registry: 50 different systems and 50 different vulnerabilities. A hacker doesn't need to crack Fort Knox; they just need to find the weakest link, like a poorly funded registry with outdated servers. The Israeli leak wasn't a fluke; it was a preview of what happens when gun owners' data is stored by a government and becomes a target of an adversary.

From a pro-gun rights perspective, this is why we fight tooth and nail against registries. The Second Amendment isn't just about self-defense: it's about keeping power in the hands of the people, not the state or its enemies. A registry, whether federal or state, flips that balance. It's not paranoia to say "registration leads to confiscation"; history backs it up—look at Australia's 1996 buyback or the UK's post-Dunblane crackdown. But even short of confiscation, a leaked registry is a roadmap for intimidation or worse. In Israel, Iranian hackers didn't just want data—they wanted leverage. In the United States, a leaked list could arm everyone from gangbangers to foreign spies with the means to target law-abiding citizens in their search for firearms. In Israel, it's even worse. In the event of a war, Iran knows exactly what neighborhoods and homes to target to wipe out the most zealously patriotic Israeli citizens; which would impact future elections if they were suddenly attacked.

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• KTracy.com has been fair on this topic. Going as far back as 2010, Travis was writing about the need for 2nd Amendment enthusiasts to use common sense.
• However, we have articles before that stating the obvious: banning hand guns does nothing to stop violence.
• This was made painfully obvious when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated with a homemade gun, proving that national gun registries and radical anti-gun laws won't keep people safe.