Dem rep: Ban ‘military-style semiautomatic assault weapons’ and buy them back

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is proposing a ban on assault-style weapons and a government program to buy them back from people who already own them.

In an op-ed published on Thursday by USA Today, Swalwell outlined a plan to buy back military-style semiautomatic rifles from their owners and prosecute those who refused to comply.

“Reinstating the federal assault weapons ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004 would prohibit manufacture and sales, but it would not affect weapons already possessed,” Swalwell wrote. “This would leave millions of assault weapons in our communities for decades to come.”

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“Instead, we should ban possession of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, we should buy back such weapons from all who choose to abide by the law, and we should criminally prosecute any who choose to defy it by keeping their weapons,” he continued. 

Such a ban on assault-style weapons would not apply to law enforcement or to shooting clubs, Swalwell said. 

To be sure, such a buyback program would come at a hefty price. Swalwell conceded that cost to the government could run as high as $15 billion, depending on the price paid for each weapon.

But even that, he argued, would be a drop in the bucket, relative to the $4 trillion the U.S. is expected to spend this year.

“What is it worth to American taxpayers to not see our families, friends and neighbors cut down in a hail of gunfire?” Swalwell wrote. “Consider this an investment in averting carnage and heartache and loss.”

Swalwell’s op-ed came months after the national debate over gun violence and firearm regulations picked up new momentum following a deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

That shooting was carried out by a gunman using an assault-style rifle. 

In the aftermath of that attack, students and anti-gun violence advocates across the country launched protests and pressure campaigns in an effort to rally support for new firearm restrictions.