One state pulling trigger on gun-confiscation scheme

The state of Colorado is moving forward on a preliminary step to "gun confiscation," according to a column by David B. Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute, in Complete Colorado.

That's even though a long list of other states in recent years rejected the same idea.

Key to Colorado's agenda is that the state Senate, House and governor's office all are controlled by Democrats and other leftists.

The issue is the mandate for banking institutions to use a special code when someone purchases a gun.

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The identifier is called a merchant category code, and Florida, Utah, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming all have defeated similar proposals over the last year or so.

However, Kopel pointed out, the group now called the Brady Campaign, a "gun confiscation lobby," has announced, "The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition—except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors—totally illegal."

Kopel, in testimony to lawmakers, explained the category code plan, "has no plausible utility in its purported purpose of preventing gun crime before the fact. Instead, the bill’s only utility is in service of gun confiscation."

He added, "Proponents say that an MCC specific to firearms dealers will help track suspicious purchases, so that authorities can intervene. The government will know exactly (who) is buying firearms and how frequently. Proponents stated in a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department and Department of Justice: 'We believe that implementation of the new MCC code for gun stores could enable financial institutions to identify and report potentially illegal gun sales to law enforcement — helping reduce gun trafficking, straw purchases, and transactions structured to evade the mandatory multiple sale reports required by firearm retailers.'"

But he cited the extensive application process that already exists for someone purchasing a gun, including a four-page federal form.

And he added, "Although not plausibly valuable for crime prevention, the proposed MCC bill would be a handy tool for the ultimate objectives of the gun confiscation lobbies. In their dream world of house-to-house gun confiscation, the customer lists from sporting goods stores would identify the first persons to target."

Kopel noted the law doesn't allow that right now, but "the confiscation lobbies and their political allies are also strong advocates of packing the Supreme Court to nullify the right to arms. With the right election results, the court-packing could be accomplished in the next session of Congress, or soon thereafter."

And he warned the political majority in Washington changes, so the law easily could "be weaponized against the favored groups of some of the bill’s proponents, including anti-police protesters, Marxists, unlawful aliens, and the various organizations and their donors that support both such types of persons."

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