General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm all for a total ban on semi-automatic guns [View all]krispos42
(49,445 posts)The police are told that the turn-in period for semiautos has expired, but they have it on good authority that Mr. Smith at 1234 Maple Street still has is semiauto.
Now, what does the police do?
Does a lone officer, or pair of officers, simply knock on his door and tell him it's time to turn it in? Maybe. But that might put the officers at risk.
Or does the SWAT team go in with a no-knock warrant and flashbang grenades?
What does Mr. Smith do when his front door is smashed in at 2am and what he believes are shotgun blasts begin going off in his house? Well, he might just grab a gun (perhaps the now-illegal semi-auto) and start shooting back at what he believes are armed criminals breaking into his house and threatening him and his family.
So, what happens? Mr. Smith might get killed, a cop or two might get killed, Mrs. Smith or one of her kids might get killed.
Mr. Smith, who was not going to flee for the forests and abandon his civilized life all for the sake of his now-banned semiauto, now has killed a cop. Or Mr. Smith or his wife or his kids were killed by law enforcement because, yanno, Mr. Smith's gun was too dangerous for society to allow.
There are tens of thousands of independent law-enforcement agencies in America. How are they going to respond to having to enforce the law? I don't know, but it will be very diverse.