In an editorial in USA Today, Rep. Eric Swalwell proposed a mandatory buyback of all āmilitary-style semiautomatic assault weaponsā without any āgrandfather clauseā for existing weapons or any deference to the Second Amendment ā the sort of forced-confiscation plan that gun-rights advocates have warned about and gun-controllers have hotly denied they seek.
The California Democrat called reinstating the federal assault-weapons ban from the 1990s a good beginning, ābut it would not affect weapons already possessed.ā
āInstead, we should ban possession of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, we should buy back such weapons from all who choose to abide by the law, and we should criminally prosecute any who choose to defy it by keeping their weapons,ā Swalwell said.
Swallwell also downplayed the Second Amendment implications of mandatory gun confiscation, in part by saying that even late Justice Antonin Scalia in the Heller decision wrote that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited.
But he also implied that it wouldnāt matter anyway because gun control saves lives, which matters more than individual rights, the Washington Times reports.
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