That is some scary stuff. One question. Doesn't the Constitution protect private property? Wouldn't legally purchased firearms be viewed as private property? I can see them getting away with making a ban on future purchases of "Assault weapons" (trust me I don't agree with it) but forcing people to turn them in! It seemed to me the Clinton administration was smart enough not to go that far.
I don't know if the constitution specifically protects one's property.... except
maybe under the context of the 4th amendment. Problem is if something is
declared "contraband" it seems that the government gets an unlimited license
to seize it, at that point. Of course, from a practical standpoint there
is a lot less opposition to a "ban" if the ban grandfathers the contraband
instead of requiring it to be seized.... for a couple of reasons.
-Seizing millions of guns costs money. If seizure is a requirement it has
to be funded, either in terms of LEO overtime or LEO overtime + costs of
offering a buyout. This means congress must be asked for more money,
and on its front will look politically offensive. Telling another congressman
that you want to steal his pork money to steal the guns of his constituents
isn't going to go over very well. A plain ban with grandfathering allows
the ban to get slipped under the rug because the up front cost is far lower.
-Seizing guns en masse is likely to create other problems the authoritarian
statists want to avoid. Some individuals may band together and resist
the demand. This might even cause a breakdown in power
structures. (EG, what happens is the local sheriff thinks the government
has gone too far and teams up with the locals to keep the feds
out? then all hell breaks loose. If the feds up the ante the NG or military
may not want to get involved, and may possibly end up on the "wrong" side
themselves. The feds don't want to deal with that.
The other reason the Klinton admin didn't go full bore on the crime bill is they
had to make concessions to make it passable as it was. While the full blown
antis were the drum beaters, it still required approval by some fence sitters
in order to pass. The klinton AWB -barely- passed. If a pro gunner
was president instead of klinton and the bill got bounced back via veto there
would not have been enough votes to override it.
-Mike