Many conservatives and libertarians in the US are optimistic about the American tradition of firearm ownership and the 2nd amendment by which it is guaranteed. Many don’t understand, however, that the 2nd amendment no longer guarantees that anyone could buy, own, or carry a firearm. In fact, the US government and local governments have ruled that they could confiscate guns from innocent Americans like you and me. Indeed, they have done it in the past and they continue to do so presently. Here are the four broad, major methods that the government uses to 1) prevent Americans from obtaining guns and 2) take guns away from Americans without procuring a warrant:
1) Mental illness (as determined by politicians)
Gun confiscation and prohibition due to alleged mental illness is a very vast subject that liberals and conservatives have been debating for a number of years. The Democrat Party is hardly shy about their desire to ban and confiscate all firearms from citizens, leaving them only in the hands of military and police officers. They are even less shy about their plot to use ‘mental illness’ as a means of preventing Americans from obtaining firearms, and even prohibiting gun ownership by people who have been diagnosed with issues as mild as depression, ADHD, substance use disorder, or anxiety. Now that the leftist/globalist World Health Organization has announced that playing video games too often will henceforth be considered a mental illness, expect democrats to embrace the new ‘mental disorder’ in their endeavor to attain outright gun control.
President Obama passed a law that required the Social Security Administration to report to the FBI all beneficiaries who enlisted help from family or friends to file for their benefits. The FBI was then required via the NICS background check system to disallow all of those people from obtaining firearms. Trump was quick to reverse this rule once elected, causing progressives to have meltdowns and condemn republicans for ‘putting guns in the hands of the mentally ill’. Despite this, states like New York continue to deny people their 2nd amendment right based on a very low threshold of ‘mental illness’. Since Governor Cuomo passed the SAFE Act into law in 2013, any doctor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker can report a person to be ‘mentally ill’, and then send police to their homes to take their guns. Imagine that your parents are getting older and beginning to slow down. Since you don’t yet have the money for the extension on your home that would be your parents’ new room, they remain in their own home for the time being, and you and your siblings all pitch in to help with their senior needs. Should they lose their 2nd amendment right to own firearms because they need help filing for the social security benefits (read: asking for the money stolen from them throughout their whole lives to be returned to them)?
The perpetual effort by authoritarian politicians to put the government in charge of delivering healthcare to Americans is augmented by authoritarian doctors who would love to help the government remove all firearms from the hands of Americans. Once all doctors are employees of the federal government, the process of gun confiscation by medical professionals becomes seamless. The kicker? It is a serious federal crime to lie to a federal government employee
2) Disaster confiscation
The government has the power to take guns away from every American whenever they declare a ‘state of emergency’ (The government literally has the power to do anything, actually). After Hurricane Katrina, Americans in New Orleans had their firearms stolen from them by federal and local law enforcement (there were no reports of people with ‘Molon Labe’ & Thin Blue Line stickers being exempt). Speaking of the foolhardy ‘Molon Labe’ (come & get ‘em) culture of conservatives and libertarians who claim that they’re tough enough to invoke the 2nd amendment in the face of government confiscations, swearing that the government would only ever take their guns ‘from their cold dead hands’, nobody seemed to resist, other than one very old lady who was overpowered and outgunned by the many soldiers with AR-15s. She was easily knocked onto the floor and punished for resisting, and then all of her guns were stolen by the government. It would not even be shocking if the president or if your governor declared another ‘state of emergency’ and then ordered law enforcement to confiscate all firearms from citizens ‘for their safety’.
3) Self-defense firearm use
In the event that an American is forced to use his or her gun in self defense – a scenario that occurs around 2.5 million times each year – their gun is immediately confiscated by the responding law enforcement official. One unlucky New Hampshire man had all ten of his firearms taken by police after he picked up his pistol while rushing out of his apartment after hearing his wife being verbally attacked by two neighbors, each of which was twice the size of his wife, reports the Union Leader. When a citizen used his concealed pistol to shoot the person beating a police officer, even his gun was confiscated by police, despite nobody even entertaining the thought of charging him with a crime. The legal justification for this theft is quite ambiguous, but it generally seems to be justified as ‘civil asset forfeiture’, which is the unconstitutional practice (directly violating the Due Process clause of the 5th amendment) present in law enforcement across the nation whereby police seize any item that the officer feels could conceivably be used in a crime. If you only own one gun and are forced to use it, expect to be without any firearm for however long the investigation takes, which may turn out to be forever. It is under this pretense that police regularly confiscate cash from people who happen to be in possession of more money than the cop feels is appropriate. This seizure does not require a warrant or a conviction. Worse yet, local governments negotiate with the federal government in regards to which percentages of the cash they keep for their respective governments. Civil asset forfeiture is one of the very few issues remaining that seems to unite all Americans. Despite overwhelming opposition from Americans, (and conservatives’ supposed fidelity to property rights) Attorney General Jeff Sessions is encouraging law enforcement to use civil forfeiture more often.
4) Marijuana
The Gun Control Act of 1968 made it illegal for a person to possess a firearm if they use or are addicted to marijuana. Despite what optimistic conservatives may tell you, this did, in fact, occur without passing and ratifying an amendment to the Constitution, making the law unconstitutional. But it is still the law. If the 2nd amendment were still applied today, we would not be required by ‘law’ to ask the federal government for permission with the form 4473 each time we purchase a gun. Question 11e of the form reads: ”Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” The 16-page list of such substances includes medications like Adderall & Testosterone. This is a federal government form, and lying to the federal government is a high crime that can earn you many years in prison.
Marijuana & firearms were in the news again recently when the city of Honolulu ruled that people who are registered users of medical marijuana must turn in their guns to the government. After intense opposition from Hawaiian gun owners and gun rights advocates, Honolulu politicians backed down. For now.
Authoritarians and communists will never cease their effort to remove all guns from all Americans. It is irrelevant to them if the method of confiscation involves ‘mental illness’, use of simple drugs or medications, being old, being young, the gun holding too many bullets, the gun being determined by police to possibly be used in a crime, or by declaring a ‘state of emergency’. The left will not rest until no American citizen owns as much as a shell casing. We must be as vigilant now as ever.
