It is no longer a conspiracy theory spawned by deplorable bitter clingers, but a creeping reality spawned by shootings law enforcement could have prevented but didn't.  The Illinois House has passed legislation requiring 18- to 20-year-olds to give up certain legally purchased and legally owned firearms:

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.

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.

Gun confiscation is here.  First they will come for the young, who can go to war with guns but can no longer go hunting with them or protect their families.  If you are a 20-year-old single mom with a restraining order against a violent ex-boyfriend, well, you'll just have to trust your life to 911 as your door is being kicked in.  Meanwhile, the government wants you to give it your guns:

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."

That is what you call a distinction without a difference.  If there is another shooting law enforcement fails to prevent, rest assured that the misdemeanor will become a felony, the voluntary turn-in will indeed become a door-knock, and the requirement to give up your weapons and your Second Amendment rights will expand to other groups such as veterans and seniors deemed unfit because of stress and age to own firearms.  President Trump recently rolled back an Obama-era executive order attempting to accomplish that last one.

Restricting the right to purchase and own a firearm sounds good, but age and maturity don't always coincide, and the fact is that most mass shooters have been over 21.  Again, if you can carry a gun to defend your country, you should be able to own one to defend yourself and your family.  This legislation is naïve, dangerous, and arguably an unconstitutional ex post facto law.

"Passing a law that makes it illegal for a 20-year-old to purchase a shotgun for hunting or adult single mother from purchasing the most effective self-defense rifle on the market punishes law-abiding citizens for the evil acts of criminals," an NRA spokesman told the Hill. 

Any law that requires an individual to be 21 or older to buy a firearm "effectively prohibits" adults aged 18-20 from buying a firearm "deprives them of their constitutional right to self-protection."…

The bill that will now head to the Illinois Senate, HB 1465,

•Makes it unlawful for any person within the State to knowingly deliver or sell, or cause to be delivered or sold, an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge to, any person under 21 years of age.

•Makes it unlawful for any person under 21 years of age to knowingly possess an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge 90 days after the effective date of the bill.  Provides exemptions and penalties.

•Provides that it is unlawful for any person within the State to knowingly deliver or sell, or cause to be delivered or sold, a large capacity ammunition feeding device to a person under 21 years of age.

•Provides that it is unlawful for any person under 21 years of age to possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device within the State.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives voted no on the measure, and expressed her concern about the issue earlier this week when Illinois Review asked her about raising the age buying a gun to age 21.

"What other rights are we going to raise to age 21?" Ives answered.  "The age is arbitrary.  The average age of a mass shooter is somewhere in the 30s."

It is typical of gun-control zealots that their answer to the slaughter invited by gun-free zones is to create more gun-free victims.  Those who fear an armed citizenry are typically those who believe that all rights are on loan from an all-powerful government.  The Founders wisely wrote the Second Amendment to protect the other nine in the Bill of Rights.

Critics of the Second Amendment say they are not going after guns used for legitimate activities such as hunting.  But when the Founders wrote the Second Amendment, it was because the British were coming, not because it was the start of deer season.  As Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano notes:

The historical reality of the Second Amendment's protection of the right to keep and bear arms is not that it protects the right to shoot deer[.] ... It protects the right to shoot tyrants, and it protects the right to shoot at them effectively, with the same instruments they would use upon us.  If the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto had had the firepower and ammunition that the Nazis had, some of Poland might have stayed free and more persons would have survived the Holocaust.

The AR-15 is a defensive weapon, such as when it was used by a 15-year-old, who grabbed his father's and used it to ward off home invaders:

Not only did this brave 15-year-old defend his home against 2 burglars, but also his 12-year-old sister who was in the house with him.  He grabbed his father's AR-15 and shot one of the burglars multiple times.  They got away but had to go right to the hospital where the minor was arrested and the adult who was shot was flown to a different hospital.

In the hands of British redcoats, the musket was an assault weapon.  In the hands of a law-abiding American, even those between 18 and 20, an AR-15 is what the Second Amendment is all about.

Daniel John Sobieski is a free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.