Swalwell Announces Candidacy, Repeats Bonehead 'Buyback' Strategy

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

It’s official. Rep. Eric “Nuke ‘Em All” Swalwell (D-CA) is running for president. This comes as the California congressman made his announcement yesterday. Swalwell enters an already crowded field for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

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Unsurprisingly, he’s making gun control a major part of his campaign.

Bay Area congressman Eric Swalwell on Monday became the latest person to join the incredibly crowded 2020 Democratic presidential race.

His primary policy message of the campaign will be gun control, and he’s proposing a mandatory buyback of “military-style semiautomatic assault weapons.”

“I will be the first candidate to say that reducing gun violence has to be a top three issue,” Swalwell told Esquire. “Last year I wrote a bill calling for a buyback and ban on assault weapons — not just to ban future manufacturing, but to just take the 15 million that are out there and buy them back.”

Swalwell stated that the buyback is mandatory.

“I’m the only candidate calling for a mandatory national ban and buyback of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons,” he wrote in a Chronicle op-ed. “It’s bold and will cost money, but it is constitutional and it rightly treats gun violence as a life-or-death matter. Our children deserve better than an attempt to reduce or contain gun violence. Our goal must be to end it.”

Let’s take a step back and look at this bit.

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[J]ust take the 15 million that are out there and buy them back.

Let me know when you get done laughing.

Just get it all out.

Finished? Great.

First, let’s address the idea that you can “buy them back.”

For one thing, the government never really owned them, so you can’t “buy them back.” The term “buyback,” while commonly used by most people including me, isn’t an accurate statement for what we’re talking about here. What Swalwell is proposing is a measure that would give people token compensation for property the government has now deemed illicit.

But Swalwell is deluding himself if he thinks those firearms are going to be sold to the government at a financial loss to the owners.

No. They’re not. Look at recent efforts to restrict certain types of guns in various ways to get a glimpse of what noncompliance will look like for an effort like what Swalwell is proposing.

The guns aren’t going anywhere.

Hell, anti-gunners like Swalwell enjoy invoking how Australia implemented its gun ban with a “buyback,” which was clearly a model for Swalwell in this braindead idea. What Swalwell is missing is the result of Australia’s several amnesties following the passage of the law. Why? Because a lot of Australians didn’t turn in their guns.

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Why does Swalwell think Americans would be more compliant?

What Swalwell is running on is the idea of starting a civil war. Keep in mind that he also called for “going after” those who don’t comply with gun confiscation. He’s responded to comments that his efforts could result in a civil war by saying the United States would win because of nuclear weapons, a pretty clear suggestion that he’s fine with nuking American citizens.

Despite all of that, he thinks there’s a chance he could be president.

And there, ladies and gentlemen is your comedy relief for the day. Do enjoy the rest of the day and please, tip your waiters.

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