Obama Justice Dept. memo says registration, gun confiscation necessary

According to a short video produced by the NRA, a Justice Department memo says that an assault weapon ban would not be effective without mandatory gun confiscation and that universal background checks would only work with federal gun registration, Jim Hoft reported at the Gateway Pundit on Monday, citing a blog post at Guns Saves Lives.

"Make no mistake," the blog post said, "an assault weapons ban of any kind, even with a grandfathering clause is a step towards gun confiscation."

Democrats in at least two states -- Missouri and Minnesota -- have already proposed legislation that if passed into law, would require law-abiding gun owners to surrender rifles, shotguns and pistols deemed to be "assault weapons." A proposal being considered in Washington State would require local sheriffs to inspect the homes of those with "assault weapons" to ensure they are secure.The post also says that universal background checks are "just the first step" in implementing federal gun registration, which will ultimately lead to confiscation.

Advocates of gun control say they do not want to take guns away from hunters and sport shooters, but another post atGuns Save Lives provides quotes from prominent Democrats advocating confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens.

“Confiscation could be an option…mandatory sale to the state could be an option,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"If I could have banned them all – ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ – I would have," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) said in 1995.

A post at the Geeky Liberal cites, among others, a post at the liberal Daily Kos calling for all guns to be taken from the civilian population.

"The only way we can truly be safe and prevent further gun violence is to ban civilian ownership of all guns. That means everything. No pistols, no revolvers, no semiautomatic or automatic rifles. No bolt action. No breaking actions or falling blocks. Nothing. This is the only thing that we can possibly do to keep our children safe from both mass murder and common street violence," theDaily Kos said in a post outlining a step-by-step process for stripping Americans of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

A Jan. 4 document by Greg Ridgeway, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the National Institute of Justice, admitted that "gun buybacks are ineffective as generally implemented," unless they are "massive and coupled with a ban."

According to Dr. Ridgeway, these buybacks are ineffective because replacements can be easily procured, the buybacks are too small in scope and many of the weapons being turned in would probably never be used in a crime.

"Unless these three points are overcome," he wrote, "a gun buyback cannot be effective."