In the good old days, the gun-grabbers only went after your "high capacity" magazines or what they said was an "assault weapon" and called it a day.  They were "butters" for the Second Amendment — as in "I support the 2nd Amendment, but...," and they went on from there proving they had no use for you or your guns.

That was before they came up with the brilliant idea of "defunding the police," because we all know that the best way to control crime is to stop catching criminals or keeping them in jail.  It usually helps to "feel" these ideas rather than think about them; that's the only way they make sense, at least if you're AOC.

Then, to the surprise of no one except the anti-liberty left, crime skyrocketed out of control, and everyone ran out to buy guns.  This confused the feelings over logic folks to no end.  They know that guns are bad; they know that guns cause violence because that's what they repeat to themselves like a religious catechism.  So what's a good Democrat to do in the face of wrongthink?  Ah-ha!  They needed to make a change in their worldview!  That's very "progressive," after all — taking into account new circumstances and new realities for the 21st century!  Unlike the Neanderthals of the right, they are responsible human beings, so they are the only ones who should own guns.

Suddenly, it all made sense once again.  They can own guns without any guilt and still want to confiscate them from everyone else.  Except for the criminals — they are victims of society, and it's too tough to take them anyway, so they'll just leave them alone.

Their problem was figuring out how to take all those guns from their political opponents and not look like total hypocrites.  (That last part was totally made up; Democrats have never cared about looking like hypocrites.)

So they looked to socialist nations of the past — Germany, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba — and took a page from their history.  They started with registration to keep everyone safe from crime, always their top consideration after eliminating cash bail.  Then they need to make sure everyone has his guns in one place and not hidden away from them.  Finally, they had their handy-dandy — and without that pesky due process to get in the way — unconstitutional gun confiscation or so-called "red flag" laws to selectively take them whenever it was necessary.

First off, they needed to know who owned the guns and what they had.  Forcing registration is a good strategy for this — who cares if it's blatantly against the law?  It's "for the children," and breaking the law is always the best way of maintaining it.  Consequently, they began with having the folks tasked with taking care of the moonshine, illegal cigarettes, and sawed-off shotguns illegally compile the old data from gun sales.  Later, field agents from the catch-all bureaucracy, the ATF (AKA the AFT, according to President Houseplant), would also scan new versions of the Firearms Transaction Record form (4473) with all the pertinent data all in one convenient place for confiscation — something that always seems to warm the cockles of authoritarian fascists' hearts everywhere. 

Somehow, the people who only pretend to care about liberty and falsely call themselves liberals love this sort of illegal overreach that violates multiple parts of the Bill of Rights.  They don't see a problem with Big Brother having all this information on innocent people.  Situational ethics is fine for them when it comes to your guns; try compiling lists of who's had an abortion, and watch them go high dudgeon on you.

Now, what's a gun-grabber to do when he isn't sure someone's guns aren't going to be in one place?  Easy!   Demand "Safe Storage" requirements.  Just as it says, they're going to want you to keep all your guns in an expensive and heavy safe.  All ready for when the SWAT team comes a-calling at 3:00 AM to confiscate your guns.  We can't fault them for violating any truth in advertising laws for this one.  The wording is perfectly plain.  They are just lying through their false teeth in why they want these extra burdens to exercise a commonsense civil right. 

Anti-liberty leftists also love to twist the authoritarian knife just a little more by throwing reporting requirements into the mix.  We're talking private property here, so they don't have a leg to stand on when they want to control your guns, but they want to do it anyway.  It's their idea of fun — just so they can control your property a little more and make their gun-grabbing dreams a reality. 

Finally, there is the pièce de resistance, the ultimate goal they have always denied: unconstitutional gun confiscation orders.   Much like disgusting things you find in nature like excrement, they are known by many names: red flag laws, ERPOs, etc.  It's almost as if a committee of collectivists got together and decided to craft a type of law that would violate a record number of constitutional amendments.  These 2nd Amendment abominations violate the 6th, the 8th, and two parts of the 5th for good measure while infringing on the 1st and 4th, which is one magic loogie of civil rights law.

Then, on top of everything else, the gun-grabbers want to add some fluffy white frosting to their authoritarian cake.  The masters of overreach decided they just had to combine their two favorite activities in the whole wide world: restricting something beyond belief and hitting everyone up with taxes, fees, and insurance requirements at the same time to make people pay for the "privilege."  Because there is nothing they like better than to force people to do something and make them pay for it at the same time.  Aren't you glad we have them to look out for us and make sure we don't have too much extra cash?

D. Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history.  Also a writer in the communications field and a longtime contributor to the NOQ report.

Image via Max Pixel.