How to Disarm America

Of course in the aftermath of Viriginia Tech there are predictable calls for gun control. While most of the proposals are objectionalbe simply on policy grounds, i.e. I don't agree with the policy of gun control at its core, at least the proposals generally don't involve gestappo-like tactics to enforce, like this one:

Now, how would one disarm the American population? First of all, federal or state laws would need to make it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in prison per weapon to possess a firearm. The population would then be given three months to turn in their guns, without penalty.

snip

The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm.

Clearly, since such sweeps could not take place all across the country at the same time. But fairly quickly there would begin to be gun-swept, gun-free areas where there should be no firearms. If there were, those carrying them would be subject to quick confiscation and prosecution. On the streets it would be a question of stop-and-search of anyone, even grandma with her walker, with the same penalties for "carrying."

Of course, as Captain Ed pointed out, there is that pesky 2nd Amendment, but Eugene Volokh proposes substituting drugs for guns and see if you come up with another 4th Amendment violation. Here is another substitution for you, obscene material in your own home or "subversive literatute." Sound a little Orwellian to you?

By the way, the author of the dismarmament plan notes in his defense:

And before anyone starts to hyperventilate and think I'm a crazed liberal zealot wanting to take his gun from his cold, dead hands, let me share my experience of guns.

As a child I played cowboys and Indians with cap guns. I had a Daisy Red Ryder B-B gun. My father had in his bedside table drawer an old pistol which I examined surreptitiously from time to time. When assigned to the American embassy in Beirut during the war in Lebanon, I sometimes carried a .357 Magnum, which I could fire accurately. I also learned to handle and fire a variety of weapons while I was there, including Uzis and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Not that this pre-disposition makes up for the unconstitutional plan.