The left will hate guns into eternity future it would seem. Even if some will look at the facts, reason through the thing, and come to a coherent conclusion, the vast majority of liberals want all guns out of the hands of all private citizens. It’s an awful idea, but at least their position is clear even if not fully articulated. We have to deal with phrases like “sensible gun-control” as they press toward their ultimate goal of complete gun confiscation.
Illinois, home to one of the most anti-gun and violent cities in America is in the news. Here’s what is being proposed by the state legislature.
A bill requiring 18-20 year olds to hand over or transfer ownership of heretofore legally possessed “assault weapons” is gaining sponsors in the Illinois Senate after passing the House last month.
The bill, HB 1465, was sponsored in the House by Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-Schaumburg) and passed by a vote of 64-51 on February 28.
After being introduced in the upper house by Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), the bill has added seven co-sponsors in the last week. Notable among them was Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove), the NRA “A” rated 2014 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.
This is the typical, useless legislation that we expect. A very few mentally ill young people have used such weapons to commit unspeakable atrocities. So the solution is to confiscate them from all that age. That, as though any such young person contemplating such a massacre will surrender his or her weapons.
The NRA-ILA described the weapons covered by HB 1465 as “commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms.” The bill also requires 18-20-year-olds to forfeit ownership of any magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.
The guns and magazines remain legal for persons 21 and up, but persons under 21 would have 90 days to give up ownership, should HB 1465 become law.
Fox 2 reports that critics of Mussman’s bill were taken aback by “the idea that the government would confiscate property.” Mussman responded to these concerns by assuring them “authorities will not visit homes to pick up weapons.” Rather, “a first offense for getting caught with prohibited firearms would be a misdemeanor offense.”
The likelihood that this legislation will save any lives is vanishingly small. But that doesn’t matter to the left. They are compelled to do something, no matter how useless or stupid it might be.
The young person bent on committing mass murder will find a way to gain possession of weapons to accomplish that atrocity. That’s the brutal, yet accurate fact. Disarming everyone else through the confiscation of private property sets a terribly dangerous precedent, and is not going to help anyway.
We’ve witnessed students setting off bombs, or at least attempting to do so. The Palestinian kids excel at this. There is no reason to believe a homicidal American student couldn’t do likewise inside his or her school. No guns involved. Now what? Ban backpacks? Force all students to go through a strip search on arrival at school each day?
For the vast majority of our country’s history, it’s not been like this. There were few if any gun laws, and no school shootings until recent decades. It would be interesting to listen to the left explain that. Or maybe not.
We live in an increasingly violent and emotionally disturbed society. The solution is not to infringe on Second Amendment rights, but to transform the culture to what it was decades ago where there were no gun laws and maybe one or two school shootings per decade, if that.
And in the meantime, we must arm responsible and trained Americans to defend against attacks.
Source: Breitbart
Image: Illinois Policy
I am sure the gangs on the southside will be lining up to turn in theirs. Enforce the laws on the books, do a little stop and frisk and I bet you will find 99% of the guns on the street are illegal.