After the Orlando shooting, we were reminded a lot of gun control advocates don’t know the first thing about guns, hence the obsession with “assault weapons.” Those who do tend to lean toward confiscation. Do they even know how that would work?
J.D. Tuccille writes:
Some advocates of restrictions will object that they “don’t want to take away” existing guns—they just want to prevent the acquisition of new ones. That narrative becomes complicated when officials like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo muse that “Confiscation could be an option”—a sentiment echoed by the New York Times editorial board.
But let’s go with it. So, the government somehow defines “assault weapons” in a meaningful way and bans sales of new ones. How is that going to be effective given the millions of disfavored weapons already in circulation? That includes roughly 8 million AR-15-style rifles alone—out of somewhere north of 300 million firearms in general. It’s not like they’re going anywhere. Plenty of 19th century firearms are still in working condition.
And their numbers will increase, even if commercial production and sales are outlawed. People have been 3D-printing AR-15 lower receivers (the parts legally classified as a firearm) for years. More durable receivers are CNC-milled by hobbyists from partially finished blanks as well as raw blocks of metal. These techniques were developed in anticipation of the laws now proposed, with the specific purpose of rendering them impotent.
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