As James Bovard pointed out in 2020, ""'Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15,' declared 'Beto' O'Rourke at a Democratic party presidential candidate debate in September. Compelling Americans to surrender their so-called assault weapons is 'the newest purity test' for Democratic presidential candidates, according to the Washington Post. O'Rourke and other Democratic presidential candidates, including Cory Booker, Kristin Gillibrand, and Bill de Blasio (now withdrawn from the race, as are Gillibrand and O'Rourke) have all endorsed mandatory buy-backs of assault weapons. Though such proposals are momentarily politically profitable, they could start a cascade of public-policy dominoes that ends in civil war.

When Australia and New Zealand mandated buy-backs of assault weapons, most gun owners ignored the decrees despite politicians repeatedly ratcheting up their threats. Similar noncompliance to laws requiring surrender or registration of assault weapons has occurred in California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and elsewhere.

Congress passed an assault-weapons ban in 1994 that lasted for a decade. The original assault-weapons ban protected Americans from being shot with rifles that included features such as grenade launchers, bayonet lugs, or other detailing whose primary impact was to fuel the phobias of gun haters.

Shortly after the 1994 ban was passed, a Washington Post editorial admitted, 'Assault weapons play a part in only a small percentage of crime. The provision is mainly symbolic; its virtue will be if it turns out to be, as hoped, a stepping stone to broader gun control.' Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, in an article headlined, 'Disarm the Citizenry. But Not Yet,' explained the 'real logic of the ban": 'Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation.' Krauthammer, who was revered by much of the nation's mainstream media, trumpeted his support for 'real steps' on gun control including 'the banning of handguns.'