If it’s costly, impractical, and unconstitutional, Kamala Harris is fully behind it. To be fair, this describes almost all of her competitors in the Democratic presidential primaries. On forced confiscation of firearms, Harris is trying to carve out her own niche, apparently:
Kamala Harris said Friday she supports a mandatory buyback of military-style assault weapons, taking a more aggressive position than her main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“I think it’s a good idea,” she told reporters after a campaign event in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
“We have to work out the details — there are a lot of details — but I do” support a forced buyback, Harris said when asked about the policy. “We have to take those guns off the streets.”
It’s not quite an exclusive niche, of course. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke called for a forced confiscation/reimbursement program for “assault weapons” too, as did Eric Swalwell very early on in the contest. Neither man made much headway in the primaries, and Swalwell was forced to drop out weeks ago. The idea of forcing legal firearms owners to surrender their legal weapons persists, however.\
We’ve covered all this before, but let’s do a recap of all the ways in which this would be impractical and ultimately useless. The number of weapons owned by Americans in the so-called “assault weapons” class number in the millions. It would take years just to set up the program, let alone administrate it. Even if such a law passed constitutional muster — and it wouldn’t — how would the government ensure enforcement? At some point, police would have to conduct house-to-house searches to find them without probable cause, which would violate not just the Second Amendment but also the Fourth Amendment.
How would this impact the rate of firearms-related homicides in the US, even if it could be accomplished? It would barely impact it — and that assumes that malevolent actors wouldn’t just switch to handguns or other long-barrel weapons. In 2017, the last full year for which we have FBI crime statistics, the US had a total of 15,129 homicides, of which 10,982 were committed by firearms. Of all firearms-related homicides, 64% were committed by handguns. Less than four percent were committed by rifles, of which “assault weapons” are a subset. Twenty-nine percent were committed by unknown types of firearms, but most of those are likelier to be handguns as well, since rifle-based homicides are usually pretty distinctive.
It’s been said over and over again, but it’s still true: far more homicides are committed by cutting instruments (10.5% of all homicides) than long-barrel firearms (4.4% of overall homicides when combining rifles and shotguns). More people are killed by hands and feet (4.6%) than rifles (2.66%) or shotguns (1.74%). These patterns hold up year after year after year, and demonstrate that “assault weapons” bans and mandatory confiscations are about posturing rather than reality.
Harris is embracing this nonsense notion in order to distinguish herself from the current trio at the top of the polls. As I write in my column at The Week, Harris is flailing because she chooses to chase inauthenticity, when in fact she could have been the natural choice for Democrats if she had just decided who she wants to be and stick with it:
Perhaps she doesn’t know what’s happening in New Jersey.
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/09/05/new-jersey-gun-owners-arent-turning-magazines-despite-new-law/
Larger magazines are being “lost,” “stolen,” even denied by owners.
These magazines are being hidden under floorboards, inside walls, in brick walls where there’s a space between front and back, in backyard holes, and so on.
One story I’ve heard after gun confiscation became law in Australia was that there was a certain lake where people fished that might have claimed over a MILLION guns that “fell overboard.”
All this talk about confiscation is just that, talk.
There’s no police force in the country ready to risk life and limb to try to confiscate guns here.
Sure first they have to prove they do not have a mental defect. Their social score must be perfect and advise where the firearms will be held is totally secure.
Just kidding, they can kiss my lilly white 2nd amendment.
Kamala Toes Hairyass I saved a spot fot your lips.
Because they are pandering to IDIOTS. They appeal directly to the least knowledgeable and intelligent of all the population; people that think there is an easy, painless solution for every problem.
Here’s a compromise solution: pass a law making it illegal for criminals to have guns. See how easy that was?
so according to harris, how many blow jobs is a simple hunting rifle, a shotgun, or an AK-47 worth. now harris has to look at pistols and full automatic weapons-endless sex repayment. right, she wants to legalize prostitution, funny but was not she a prostitute for brown for a number of years.
As always the Stupid Jackass Party(Liberal Democrat)would rather disarm law abiding Americans rather then punish crinimals who misuse guns after all its a Liberal Democrat and American Traitor John Kerry who signed the Small Arms Control Treaty which Trump pulled America out of as always the Democrats are in partnership with the Globalists like all Liberal Democrats are
And what “Newspeak,” is this?
To call what the gov’t would be doing a “buyback?
BuyBACK???
Unless you bought your guns from the gov’t it isn’t a buyBACK program, it’s a confiscation program.
You bought your guns with your own money after taxes.
This bimbo suggests you give your guns to the gov’t in exchange for a small portion of your own tax dollars!
2nd and 4th Amendments need to be re-read by Leftist bimbos and their soy-boy counterparts.
@Nan G:
one has to realize she is an idiot and no matter how hard one tries, she will always be an idiot
First we make all her bodyguards take part on a Gun Buy Back lets see her walk around with armed goon squad in Black Suits and Ties carrying her weapons for her the big trouble is these stupid liberal democrats tend to forget were not living in a monarcy
@Spurwing Plover:
recall that all demorat men have “very large manly appendages” that could be sported as weapons. or, a large piece of pepperoni in the pants would do to instill fear. no end to the total stupidity of idiots. recall that harris laid on her back and on her knees for several years to get where she is today.