Interesting Bit of Supreme Court Trivia

Coming to you courtesy of the Queen of the Porch herself, where Tam pitches:

In case you get in any conversations around the water cooler about gun registration these days and you want to lob a conversational grenade, you can point out to your co-workers that the Supreme Court held in its' 1968 Haynes decision that felons could not be required to register firearms, as doing so would be a violation of their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

Huh. Following her link...

The National Firearms Act of 1934 required the registration of certain types of firearms. Miles Edward Haynes was a convicted felon who was charged with failing to register a firearm under the Act. Haynes argued that, because he was a convicted felon and thus prohibited from owning a firearm, requiring him to register was essentially requiring him to make an open admission to the government that he was in violation of the law, which was thus a violation of his right not to incriminate himself.

...

As with many other 5th amendment cases, felons and others prohibited from possessing firearms could not be compelled to incriminate themselves through registration.

See, registration will keep guns out of the hands of criminals! :)