Is Gun Confiscation A Real Possibility In America?

When I first browsing the news articles and blog posts in Google Reader this morning, there was one blog post that caught my eye. Conservative Hideout gives us some of the details about a leaked Department of Justice memo that has troubling connotations for those of us who have little trust in the federal government. Matt is getting his information from Gateway Pundit, who has a link to the memo itself. Both blogs have the newest ad from the NRA that highlights why the group feels the ideas expressed in the memo are so dangerous. First, from the memo itself. I would urge you to read it in its entirety, so you can get the full context of what the DOJ is talking about.

Since assault weapons are not a major contributor to US gun homicide and the existing stock of guns is large, an assault weapon ban is unlikely to have an impact on gun violence. If coupled with a gun buyback and no exemptions then it could be effective. The 1997 Australian gun buyback was massive in scale and, while it appears to have had no effect on gun homicide, Australia has had no mass shootings since the ban was put in place.

There is a debate going on in American society that questions the need for any American to have what the government describes as an assault weapon. The description is completely inaccurate, but we seem to be stuck with it. My contention has always been that these weapons are not the problem. People are the real problem and that is laid out perfectly in the memo from the DOJ. I am sure they would rather the general public not have access to their internal memos, for one main reason. In spite of their public claims to the contrary, they know full well that an assault weapons ban will have virtually no effect on gun violence in America.

The NRA ad may actually be factually incorrect, as the memo does not call for mandatory gun buybacks, which would amount to gun confiscation. However, there is something else in the memo that troubles me. We have been told all along that President Obama is not after our guns. He only wants reasonable restrictions, such as completely banning certain weapons, as well as limits on large capacity magazines. Those of us who have tried to warn that these small steps on gun control were only the first salvos of full-blown gun control have been laughed at and accused of crying wolf when the wolf wasn't at the door. This memo from the DOJ shows just how right we are.

No, the memo does not call for mandatory gun confiscation, but it does lay out why gun confiscation, with no exemptions, is the only way to effectively implement any kind of gun ban. That tells me they are thinking about gun confiscation, no matter how much they try to deny it. So, to those who declare we are crying wolf for no reason, I beg to differ. There are people in power in our government who care not one whit about our rights under the Constitution. They have their own ideas about how things should be in America and they are taking steps, however small they may be, to implement that thinking at every level of our government.

Be warned, this is no small thing. The memo, which I urge you to read for yourself, describes how the DOJ knows full well that the Australian gun ban has been largely ineffective at curbing gun violence. In other words, they know gun bans do not work, yet they continue along the path towards implementing just such a plan. The next time someone tells you that no such plans exist, show them this memo and explain to them that the Bible is so very true when it says "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". The next step from talking about gun confiscation is its implementation. I suggest we watch for it carefully.