Amishman
Amishman's JournalGetting very uneasy about West Virginia v. EPA
I'm thinking they're going to end Chevron deference.
That would cripple not only the EPA, but the ATF, IRS, and most other government agencies.
What am I talking about?
Chevron is a 1984 supreme court case which essentially says that when a law is ambiguous in an area relating to the powers of a federal agency, the courts should defer to the opinion of the agency as to what the law means as they are the experts. In practice, many current federal regulations depend on agencies abilities to write detailed regulations based on open ended laws. Tearing down chevron means that unless a federal agency has a very specific mandate to do something, they could be able to be challenged in court and have a significant chance of losing. It would be a massive blow to the modern federal government, particularly since the current composition of congress makes is insanely difficult to pass laws needed to clarify the law and fill in the holes in our regulatory structures that removing Chevron would create.
Banning guns is the 'easy' part - enforcement and removal is the hard part
Lots of discussion on the need to ban dangerous guns and restrict magazines. Makes total sense, but the discussion seems focused on what might be possible to pass and how to do it.
What is being overlooked is what happens after that.
Let's say Heller is overturned, and we have the ability to pass an enhanced version of the 94 Assault Weapons Ban - one with no grandfathering.
How do we get the now illegal guns?
A few will cooperate. I own a pistol with two magazines that hold 15 rounds each (its what came with it), and I'd be fine exchanging them for ones that hold less. (I live in a very rural area where police response times can be 30+ minutes)
I'm certain that I'd be the exception and not the norm. It's a reasonable assumption that the majority won't turn them in because its the law, or even the right thing to do. Look at the abysmal registration compliance in NY and CT when they implemented a registration program - estimated at 20% or less registered.
Taking them away against their will also isn't likely to be successful.
The immediate first challenge will be one of nullification by states. Think of the current state / federal schism on marijuana but times 100. This will need to be addressed, possibly by threatening to withhold federal funding to states.
The next part is enforcement and removal once the states are brought into line.
This is definitely the hardest of the hard parts.
I see two near intractable problems: we don't fully know how many there are, we don't fully know who has them, and who collects those we do know about?
We can get clues from manufacturer and sales records, but since very few states have any sort of registration or restrictions on private sales, there is no way of proving who should have one to turn in. Add in home built guns and there are a bunch that we don't even have that. On top of this is the magazine issue, they are not serialized or recorded in any way. We have next to nothing to go on for tracking down magazines.
Those we can track down, who gets them and how?
Going door to door would be a losing proposition.
There aren't nearly enough federal resources to do it, plus backlash against this would be even hotter than state/local resources doing it. You could easily get state and local law enforcement standing with the gunners in opposition.
State and local resources isn't much better. In red areas they will likely be sympathetic to the gunners and simply refuse. If there is a means to force them into action, I would expect them to do anything they can do undermine it.
Whoever would be tasked with a door to door effort, I would not expect them to put themselves at risk and push the issue (which would certainly be needed). It is very clear that he hardcore gunners value their guns more than the lives of innocent children, I imagine they would care even less about the lives of law enforcement trying to take their guns.
What does this leave? Honestly, I can't think of too many options, and only one that might have a chance of working.
That is to treat gun owners like a little child. Reward them / bribe them for doing the right thing because they won't do it on their own. In other words a mandatory buyback program that pays so well that most of them will want to turn them in out of greed. This would probably mean double or more what those items sold for before the ban. Searching google, looks like AR-15 magazines are $10-$15 each. Handgun magazines are $25 to $40. It might take rewards of $2500 for an assault rifle and $50 for a high capacity magazine (numbers pulled out of thin air, but remember it will take a major windfall to make them want the money more than their precious guns).
It won't get all of them, the hardcore nutters won't turn them in at any price, but if we can get the majority it would be a huge improvement. Getting most of them also has the impact of de-normalizing ownership of this stuff. This approach isn't ideal, and the idea of rewarding gun nuts and giving them tons of cash for their nasty toys will feel wrong to many, but this is one of the only remotely viable roadmaps.
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