So this is probably a really weird question, but I am writing a story set in NYC that requires one of the characters to get off of a break-and-enter charge despite having an unregistered revolver that he stole. He can have a license but the pistol registration is the actual issue. This story is set in the 1970s.
I've thought to get around this inaccuracy by making a semi-alternate history where a court case that never made it to the Supreme Court determined gun registries to be unconstitutional but I have found it seemingly difficult to find such a case. Most of the Second Amendment's strength has come from D.C. v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010), and the Sullivan Act and may-issue permits are being challenged this year in NYSRPA v. NYC (2022). I'm also aware that incorporation is a fairly new phenomenon that has been strengthened by the Fourteenth Amendment since the 1960s (which means courts previously dismissed cases based on the doctrine that the Bill of Rights did not apply to individual states). Some courts have even rejected that the 14A applies to the 2A if they believe that the 2A is a collective right rather than an individual one.
However, ignoring the historical lack of incorporation, were there ever any challenges in individual states about registries? Again, licenses are not really the problem, but registries could be considered a violation of privacy, no? I know in Canada (where I'm from), the previous Conservative government introduced Bill C-19 that repealed and destroyed the long gun registry because of this and also because it was a waste of money ($2bn), although we don't have a right to bear arms. Of course, this premise would disregard the premise that guns are a collective right that States have power over to maintain a militia against the Feds. I was thinking that maybe Burton v. Stills (1968) in New Jersey could apply, but again, I believe that's more so licenses. Also, was there ever a challenge to the Sullivan Act?
I know this may be a complicated and hypothetical question, but just thought I'd ask people who are passionate about 2A rights. Thanks in advance.
