Theoretically, if there was a new "assault weapons ban", is it feasible that the guns and high capacity magazines we already owned be confiscated by authorities?
New Assault Weapons Ban, What If?
- Thread starter SkinnyGrey
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Look up the rules of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. Nothing was confiscated, and if it was already owned, it was not illegal for the possessor to keep it. You can find a whole list of everything that banned, and if I recall correctly, there is a grandfathering clause in there.
jimmyraythomason
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But gun control advocates look at the grandfathering in as a type of loop hole. Surely that would try to address that this time around. In 1996 the Australian government spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying up firearms from citizens.
Anything is possible. Congress and the States might even get together and amend the Constitution to make such a law constitutional.
The question is - who will enforce it? Some State Constitutions protect the right to keep and bear arms explicitly. The Federal Government doesn't have enough employees, so they would, theoretically, order the States to do their work. Most of the states, even the liberal ones, don't have enough employees that they would feel safe.
Worst case scenario - guns would be like illegal drugs, illegal immigrants, and rich liberals cheating on their taxes - technically illegal but nothing gets done about it. Nobody has enough money to keep violent repeat offenders locked up; rapists and murderers get released to rape and kill again. It would take a serious adjustment in priorities for the US to prioritize punishing gun owners over drug dealers.
The question is - who will enforce it? Some State Constitutions protect the right to keep and bear arms explicitly. The Federal Government doesn't have enough employees, so they would, theoretically, order the States to do their work. Most of the states, even the liberal ones, don't have enough employees that they would feel safe.
Worst case scenario - guns would be like illegal drugs, illegal immigrants, and rich liberals cheating on their taxes - technically illegal but nothing gets done about it. Nobody has enough money to keep violent repeat offenders locked up; rapists and murderers get released to rape and kill again. It would take a serious adjustment in priorities for the US to prioritize punishing gun owners over drug dealers.
There's nothing on the table, so there's nothing to talk about. "What if" could mean pretty much anything. There's no sense wasting time and bandwidth on idle speculation.
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