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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Well, now they’re openly admitting it. After New Zealand’s Prime Minister announced that the nation’s government would enact policies designed to confiscate firearms from the citizenry in response to the recent mosque shootings, several prominent American progressives publicly expressed their approval. Some might be surprised by this development, but those who support the 2nd Amendment are likely not surprised.

In years past, Democrats have claimed that they were pushing for “common sense gun control,” which means restricting gun ownership as much as possible. But, they always claimed that their aim was not to have the state confiscate the weapons of law-abiding Americans. Indeed, their left-leaning pundits routinely mocked those who opposed additional gun control measures, claiming that they were simply being paranoid.

Well, you know how the saying goes: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re out to get you.” Turns out the Democrats do want to take your firearms. After the Prime Minister’s announcement, several Democratic politicians took to Twitter to express their support. Here are some of those tweets:

We need a president who will stand up to the gun lobby. We had an assault weapons ban once, and we should have it again. These weapons of war do not belong on our streets, in our schools, or at our houses of worship. This is a fight I will take on as president.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 18, 2019

Sandy Hook happened 6 years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks w/ #HR8.

Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market.

This is what leadership looks like ⬇️ https://t.co/TcdR63anBt

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 21, 2019

This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States. https://t.co/lSAisDG9Ur

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2019

Make no mistake — this is not a new development. Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Harris, and many other progressives didn’t suddenly decide that they wanted to disarm the public because of the shootings in New Zealand. They, and many of their supporters have wanted to bring about this type of legislation for years. Indeed, a YouGov poll conducted last year revealed that 44% of Democrats favor banning semi-automatic weapons.

If you have at least a passing familiarity with firearms, you know that banning semi-automatic weapons would essentially take most of the nation’s guns from the hands of their law-abiding owners. The gun control crowd uses the term “semi-automatic” or “assault weapon” because they understand that the majority of Americans who do not own guns will assume this means the state is banning fully automatic machine guns. In this way, they are attempting to deceive the public into supporting measures that could make people less safe.

If the Democrats are now openly announcing that they want to confiscate, they must believe that the political will to implement such a policy exists in the United States. Indeed, Hawaii’s legislature just passed a law designed to alter or repeal the 2nd Amendment. Perhaps they believe the mosque shootings would push Americans over the edge into supporting bans on firearms. This is unlikely given the fact that the majority of Americans do not favor giving up their guns.

Either way, this episode demonstrates that those who value the 2nd Amendment must remain vigilant. The majority of rank-and-file Democrats are still not in favor of confiscating weapons, but many of the officials are, and they will not hesitate to take any step necessary to achieve their objective.