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One of the big concerns regarding President Trump’s efforts to build the border wall via a national emergency proclamation stems from concerns that Democrats, when they’re in power, would do the same thing with regard to guns. It’s not an idle concern either. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said as much in her efforts to dissuade Republicans from backing Trump’s play.

Economist John Lott seems to believe that Democrats really would try such a thing.

Gun rights advocate John Lott Jr. said in an interview that aired Monday on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that a Democratic president would possibly declare a national emergency on gun violence in order to confiscate firearms.

“I’d see that [as] quite possible,” Lott Jr., the author of “The War on Guns,” told host Buck Sexton last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“You’ve seen California, New York, Chicago and other places in the United States that have already used registration lists that they’ve had to identify people that owned guns to force them to have to turn them in, and get rid of them,” he continued.

“It wouldn’t be a stretch at all to see something like that happening nationally,” he said.

I’d love to say he’s wrong, but I don’t think he is.

That’s not offering an opinion on the border wall. As I’ve noted before, I see the two things as very different.

However, I do think Democrats will try it. More importantly, I think they’ll try it despite what happens at the border. The idea is in their heads now, so they’ll likely make that move regardless.

Of course, in another article, Lott is quoted as noting that Democrats are already laying the groundwork for registration.

Gun rights advocate John Lott Jr. said in an interview that aired Monday on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that the passage of universal background checks would signify a prelude to a national gun registration.

“If you get a Democratic president, and they were to pass something like these universal background checks, I think it’s just a prelude to having national registration of guns,” Lott Jr., the author of “The War on Guns,” told host Buck Sexton last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“This legislation right now officially says it’s not going to be used for registration, but the thing is, this information is kept by the licensed dealers,” he continued.

That’s been a concern for some time.

As it stands, the existence of 4473s going back for years is a concern for many gun owners. The saving grace is that it doesn’t tell anyone who has what now. After all, the CZ-75B I bought a decade ago may still be in my possession…or I may have sold it. No one knows, and that uncertainty keeps those 4473s from serving as registration, if only just barely.

The moment you pass universal background checks, though, you have de facto gun registration. Maybe not completely comprehensive–after all, you don’t know what someone bought in a face-to-face transfer before the law going into effect–but it still serves that same purpose. Over time, it will become more and more comprehensive as people sell guns for various reasons.

In other words, Lott’s correct. This is a prelude to registration, but I’ll take it a step further. It’s gun registration if a clumsy version.

Yet another reason why we have to work to block this kind of nonsense.