General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Gun lovers are just going to have to give up assault rifles. [View all]SuperDutyTX
(79 posts)Even without debating the merits of the 2A, or taking into account the political capital you'd have to expend to accomplish such a thing, the actual enforcement of a ban/confiscation I suspect would be a complete quagmire; very similar to the "war on drugs".
Most figures that I have seen estimate that there're roughly ~300-400 million firearms in private circulation; it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that at least half (150M) fall into a "semi-auto"/high capacity category. So how exactly does one effectively remove these?
Even for people who voluntarily comply (let's say 15% *similar to CT registration compliance* of the earlier mentioned 150M statistic), the federal government can't seize property without fair market compensation; doing some "back of the napkin" math, and assigning an average reimbursement price for just the firearm at $500, you're looking at roughly ~$11.25 billion to get only 15% of firearms out of public hands. Mind you, those numbers are a low/conservative estimate.
You'd still then have to deal with confiscating the other ~85%. This creates a significant challenge, as firearms aren't registered, and thus no government body knows their location. Adding to the challenge is that firearms last indefinitely, and technology is evolving to where they can now be printed by the average person.
From my perspective, the genie is out of the bottle and won't go back in. Attempts to ban/restrict/confiscate either don't account for the hundreds of millions of firearms already out there, or they'd likely end up costing so much in both blood and money, that I don't believe they're a real option.
Additionally, the longer there is talk about bans/confiscation etc. it creates panic in the market. That panic artificially inflates the demand, leading to even more firearm proliferation. Basically, it's almost impossible to implement now, but with each passing day it continues to become more untenable.
That said, I do not advocate "doing nothing". I think it would be wise to open up the NICS system to the public, to allow for private citizens to conduct background checks for potential buyers. I would also advocate for increased funding of the NICS system to better enable states to send information to the FBI.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to look at NICS denials; if prohibited people are attempting to purchase weapons, that likely warrants further investigation.
Lastly, I believe that people who are truly insane/deranged/political extremists, hell-bent on harming innocent people, is an issue that goes extends well beyond "guns". For now, firearms are a common method, but if you could snap your fingers and make them disappear, I have a feeling they'd just transition to something else.