On Thursday, May 14th, putative governor of Virginia Abigail Spanberger signed into law a host of infringements on the Second Amendment, including SB 749, an "assault firearms" ban, which makes the sale, import, and manufacture of such weapons to citizens illegal after July 1st, 2026. The "assault firearm" definition is basically an expanded version of the defunct federal one, which is to say it bans evil black rifles with pistol grips, magazines holding more than 15 rounds, threaded barrels, and other "scary" features, as well as certain pistols with these features as well. In essence, what most of us regard as a standard AR-15, or a standard handgun such as a GLOCK 17, will no longer be lawful to sell to citizens of Virginia after the effective date. Of course, as a "gimme", existing weapons will be grandfathered in as exempt, for now. Adding insult to injury, another law signed in essentially prohibits the carry of these weapons, even if you have a Virginia permit. So, if your EDC is a GLOCK 17? You'll have to carry something else after July 1st to stay lawful.
Thankfully lawsuits from the SAF, FPC, and NRA have already hit the court system, so hopefully this will force the judiciary to finally pick up a hardware ban case. Also, several state officials such as Commonwealth Attorney G Ryan Mehaffey have said the laws cannot be Constitutionally enforced, and thus he will not prosecute cases related to the law. So, the good guys, fully expecting this, are fighting back.
However, there is a bigger problem looming. The various press releases touting these laws refer to them as a "first step", countering any claims Spanberger, or any other gun control advocate, have made that the laws would somehow be the where the buck stopped. Not even close. Historically, the game has always been one of incremental restrictions to condition the unsuspecting citizenry as a whole into accepting further gun control. California is proof of that. They had the first state-level assault weapons ban in 1989, and have managed to lay in further restrictions since. Even clunky and inconvenient workarounds such as the "bullet button", which ostensibly let the user possess and use 30 round magazines on their California AR, were eventually banned as they went along. Rhode Island is attempting to take it a step further, and is floating a full-on ban of so-called "assault weapons", with no provisions for grandfathering.
It's a boil-the-frog-slowly method. Gun control organizations such as Everytown, Change The Ref, and their pet politicians fully well know the consequences of a hard and fast ban. It'd be a war they would be in no position to fight, and all bets would be off. They'd only have themselves to blame for this Belfast-on-steroids situation. So, they take the slow and deliberate road, with the end goal being confiscation or at least a blanket ban on private firearms possession in the United States. It's in their roadmap, and outside of hot-mic incidents, they've tried to disguise their intent.
Of course, with the power of this internet thing you've probably heard of, they've failed at this dissembling.
The 1993 United States Gun Confiscation Roadmap
Note: Let's give credit where credit is due. Friend of the site TaqiyyaMockingBird @taqiyyamcknbrd on X graciously provided a PDF of the original minutes of a December 1993 meeting of Handgun Control Inc (HCI), now known as Brady. Yes, the same Brady that calls for "gun safety", realistically wants full-on bans and confiscation. Color us shocked. But anyway...
The Second Amendment has always been a bedrock principle of our nation. Unique in that it acknowledges a pre-existing human right, it explicitly constrains government from enacting gun control laws. The reasoning, of course, is that the citizens that just fought for their independence, did so in part because their government had attempted to disarm them. Having no other valid path of redress, the American Revolution was a moral necessity. The point of the Second Amendment was, and is, parity. If the government has it, so should we. And giving the government the ultimate say-so on who has what defeats the purpose. The government isn't going to arm the very people who may one day want to see it gone, after all.
Unfortunately, apathy and prejudice have led to the various infringements over the years. Whether it's today's excuse of "well, NICS takes 5 minutes and I haven't broken any laws, so...", or yesterday's motivations of "Well, black people shouldn't have guns...", the Second Amendment had and still has been reduced to a second-class Amendment, by both Republican and Democratic regimes alike. Imagine if the First Amendment had all the controls 2A has on it? You'd need a permit to own a computer, and systems like Mac Studios would be "too powerful for civilians" because they can run local AIs well. Imagine having to go through the NFA process at the Apple Store.
But anyways, surprising as it seems, the Second Amendment was basically on life support in the late 1980s and 1990s. Nationally, the standard for carry was basically New York City rules, with straight-up "no-issue" being common as well. You needed lots of money, and you likely had to know someone at City Hall just to even think of being able to carry a gun legally. There were outliers like Vermont where you could do what you want without asking for permission, save for federal laws, but it was a sad state of affairs.
Additionally, gun culture was basically Fudd-level. You purchased guns for hunting or target shooting, if you even purchased them at all. Your average gun owner owned a Remington rifle of some sort, or a shotgun, or a revolver. Someone who owned more than 2 or 3 guns was considered unusual and perhaps "dangerous". Semi-automatic AR-15s were for sale, but usually they were the provenance of collectors. Generally if someone saw say a Colt SP1, they would immediately think "M16" and wonder if the owner had an "illegal" machine gun.
And forget about self-defense. Even in areas amenable to gun ownership, it was just considered "odd" to have a holstered pistol or revolver on your hip. Nevermind in urban areas where it was just assumed only criminals and cops carried guns, and if you weren't a cop, you were probably a criminal if you had a gun. Even if you managed to navigate the byzantine processes for carry permits in cities like New York City, Chicago, and Miami at the time (80s Miami, a permit ran you hundreds of dollars or more, if they granted it at all...), you generally kept your mouth shut about it. NFA? Forget about it. You had to be an FFL to own a machine gun or silencer. Even Joe Sixpack gun owners figured full-auto and cans were just illegal. And if they even knew about the NFA, trusts weren't a thing yet so the local police chief had to sign off on things, and 99 percent of those charlatans just said "no". People knew about 2A from school, but paid it no heed. After all the news said the NRA was a bunch of bloodthirsty gun nuts, and hey, the Yankee game was on...
It's little wonder the gun control establishment felt emboldened, especially with the statistical blip in urban crime in the 1980s, i.e. the Cocaine Cowboys, general gangland activity, and so on. With the lack of alternative information sources, Joe Sixpack and Neo-liberal Nancy ate it all up. Joe Sixpack figured he was in the burbs and safe, since he didn't own a gun, or if he did, it was just an old Remington hand-me-down, and Nancy Neo-lib always voted for more government since it didn't affect her busy social life. After the tragic Stockton shooting in 1989, California, always the stalwart of gun control regardless of who controlled things in Sacramento, struck with the first "assault weapons" ban. Ecstatic over the fortuitous windfall (they didn't care about the loss of life, only the opportunity), organizations like Handgun Control Inc made their moves.
Known as "Brady" today, Handgun Control Inc was feeling pretty chuffed about ramming through the California AWB along with their more rabid partners at The National Coalition to Ban Handguns, known today as the Coalition To Stop Gun Violence. As an aside, the organizations rebranded since the words "control" and "ban" didn't test well after awhile. Even for apathetic Americans at the time, outright sweeping bans seemed to be a bridge too far, thus the rebranding.
But gun control enthusiasts don't let fickle public sentiment get in the way of a good time, and have always retained a roadmap towards their eventual goal of severely restricting the right to keep and bear arms, along with outright confiscation if they can get away with it. Hint: they cannot.
The roadmap itself isn't a huge secret, but it isn't widely circulated or available. Brady has gone to great lengths to obfuscate their past, but thankfully because of this magical internet thing, even "the past" can be unearthed for all to see.
The Roadmap Itself
Gun control (confiscation) advocates often like to parrot the usual line of "no one is coming to take your guns". But, as this document, and numerous hot mic incidents show, the truth is simple. Yes, at some point, they will order their hired golems to attempt to take your guns. For context, when this document was written to rally up the advocates, the (now thankfully sunset) federal Assault Weapons Ban was being finalized for a vote. At the time of this document December 1993, the feeling was that it was likely to pass, which as we know it did. Smelling blood in the water, HCI decided to strike while the iron was hot.
The Original 1993 Document
Poorly-Xeroxed, to be sure, but remember this was the 1990s and even email was relatively uncommon at that point. However, as the intro notes, this does correspond with the HCI letterhead of the 1990s, among other things. Give it a read, it's chilling, and at the time, it was eminently possible.
The Initial Moves - Meetings At The White House, Fundraisers, And More
The setup was calculated and simple. Feinstein's (and Schumer, Biden, etc...) Assault Weapons Ban was almost a done deal. The Dems, true to form, all marshaled their support of it, and the screws were being applied to recalcitrant GOP congresspeople to get it over the hump. As the ban itself was tucked into a "tough-on-crime" bill aka "throw money at cops and create new laws which are just old laws re-worded", it was a hard sell for back-the-blue GOPers to vote "no" on. Again, this was the 1990s and it wasn't easy for people to just go to congress dot gov and have Grok take a crack at the bill text. While the HCI document suggests a final vote was imminent, the ban itself was not a done deal until August 1994. Ironically the Democrats felt the tough-on-crime portions disproportionately affected black folk - shockers, it did - and the GOP was hesitant because of the Assault Weapons Ban. Eventually, both sides realized they were getting something, and after some horse-trading, it was a done deal.
Even with the delays, HCI was, of course, thrilled - because they had a plan. Being in close proximity to DC political offices, and with likely under-the-radar funding from the government itself (think USAID), they had a much-justified shot in the arm of confidence.
Anyway, as is plainly evident in black and white, the roadmap was a wet dream for the gun control industrial complex. To wit, The Five Year Plan...hm, wasn't the USSR big on those?
National Licensing Of All Firearms Purchases
This is a variation of what President Johnson wanted in the 1968 Gun Control Act, but didn't have the political juice to implement - national licensing. It's exactly what it sounds like. Each and every purchaser of a firearm would have to have a federal license of some sort. HCI figured this one was a slam-dunk after the AWB passage, but thankfully it never happened. They even cited the UK as inspiration, forgetting that the reason they have the freedom to even propose such a thing is because Americans shot English soldiers in the face a few centuries prior, over this very matter. Graphic, yes, but it is what it is. These provisions would have also required the authorization of three state or local public officials for the end user to legally possess their guns. This was prior to NICS, so this would have been a blanket may-issue license. The idea here was that polls showed most police chiefs, mayors, and the like were anti-2A and would gladly not sign off on any firearms purchase. Denial of purchase is tantamount to confiscation, after all.
Arsenal Licenses
Gun control advocates of the time also wanted to introduce financial barriers to having more than a trivial amount of firearms. HCI proposed that anyone who had more than 5 firearms and 250 rounds of ammunition would have to have an "Arsenal License". With a yearly fee of at least $300, the license would flat-out not be available to anyone who lived in a county of more than 200,000 people. Which is to say most of the citizens of the United States would not qualify for this, and those over the limit in affected counties would have to downsize. Of course, this would be enforced by a mandatory registry.
Mandatory Storage In Approved Safes
Not merely a "safe storage" law where it's only a legal requirement to keep guns inaccessible to minors, etc, but a law requiring each licensed gun owner store their guns in federally-approved and tracked safes. Not only would your firearms need to be registered, but the safe itself would have to be compliant and registered as well, with the information being accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement. Much like the UK, spot inspections would be mandatory, as to "insure" licensed gun owners were in compliance. Presumably, there'd be a list of technical fouls to disqualify people at the discretion of the enforcing officer.
Manufacturing Bans
HCI and their acolytes probably didn't think this one through. The proposal was to ban firearms manufacturing in any county with more than 200,000 people. This would have effectively killed firearms manufacturing in the United States. For example, GLOCK's US base is in Cobb County, Georgia, which in 1990 had 388,000 people. So, no more GLOCK, no more Colt, no more FN, etc. Undoubtedly they would have amended this to exempt government suppliers, but the move still would have devastated the US firearms industry.
Bans On "Military Style" Firearms
The Assault Weapons Ban was a jab at cosmetic features - basically any civilian gun that looked like a military-issue gun was judged on the infamous point system, and had it gone over the point limits, it was thusly banned. HCI wanted to take it many steps further, reducing the point limit, and even banning Airsoft, BB, and paintball guns that looked like real guns, because in their mind they though those pieces could be converted to actual firearms. Maybe? Though an Airsoft M4 would likely shatter into pieces after one round of real ammo was somehow triggered...
Bans On Machine Gun Parts
This was a truly nefarious one. For example, a semi-automatic AR-15 shares a lot of common parts with an M16 or an M4. Barrel, bolt carrier group, magazine releases, etc. It's conceivable that this proposal would have classified all those parts, and more, as "machine gun parts" and thus worthy of a ban. The vagueness would have been the crux, as federal guidelines would have encouraged compliant prosecutors to "go hard" in enforcing this.
A Ban On Carrying Firearms
HCI, of course, wanted to emulate European and British firearms laws, and essentially ban carry nationwide. Florida scared them with shall-issue, and since the "rivers of blood" never came to pass, they had no idea how to cope except to suggest a broad-reaching ban on the bearing of arms. If someone was allowed to have a gun to begin with, they would only be permitted to keep it at home, or take it to the range and back.
Ammunition Restrictions, Purchase Licensing, And Bans
HCI did correctly note that a gun is useless without ammo. Thus they wanted to really dry up the supply of ammunition to citizens. Gun owners would be required to have a separate license to purchase ammunition, and all purchases would be tracked and notated by the federal government. Frequent buyers would be flagged and investigated. Surplus calibers like 7.62x54R, .30-06 and the like would be banned outright. Calibers specifically useful to modern militaries, i.e. 5.56mm would also be banned. Even "allowed" ammo would be heavily taxed. Plus, they wanted ammo license holders to have to adhere to federal explosive storage requirements, again subject to yearly fees and inspections. Reloading would be banned, and only done by existing munitions plants.
Restrictions On Ranges
Much like other proposals, HCI wanted bans on gun ranges in counties with more than 200,000 people. This would in fact eliminate the majority of ranges in the United States. Those that would have remained would have been subject to extreme licensing requirements, as well as requiring approval from every property owner within a seven mile radius of the range. Yes, one property owner out of say, 100, could derail a range. Additionally, per-use taxes to the tune of $85.00 or more per person, per visit, would have been mandated. A trip to the range could put some people in debt. An arcane waiting period proposal for merely renting a gun was even floated, since HCI felt it allowed people who were otherwise prohibited or priced out of owning guns to practice "human hunting".
Bans On Firearms-Related Activities
HCI truly was going for the jugular with this one. They felt that any activity that constituted "gun culture" was bad and encouraged killing children, so therefore it should be banned. Re-enactments of famous Civil War battles, gun shows, hunting groups, and even the mere assembly of armed individuals was to fall under the ban hammer. The logic here was not only to severely restrict firearms, but also restrict ancillary activities so people just flat-out wouldn't be exposed to guns or anything remotely related to them. Kill the culture, kill the interest.
Remaining Gun Owners Would Be Treated Like Sex Offenders
Every state in the Union has an online utility where one can search for sex offenders and sex predators in the area. The Venn Diagram of sex offenders and gun control advocates often overlaps, which isn't surprising. But anyways, HCI figured since it was already common practice to publish the names of deadbeat parents, that it would be entirely moral to do so for gun owners - that way neighborhood busybody types, the harridans, could get a list of evil gun owners in their area. Of course, the irony here is that in order to take any real action on them, the harridans would have to summon other gun owners, aka the police, to do their bidding. Such a double standard - if we are talking sex pests, they are overrepresented in the cohort of government employees who are armed.
After The Five Year Plan
All the above, of course, was just a start. Part of the roadmap includes things like escalating any associated fees on a yearly basis, as well as even First Amendment violations such as banning the depiction of firearms in movies, literary fiction, and television. Even more ridiculous was a proposal to ban "militaria", i.e. camouflage clothing, military surplus, and anything "combat" related. The latter would have been interesting since the 1990s saw urban streetwear brands like FUBU and Karl Kani use camouflage patterns extensively in their designs. Hm, maybe this one should have gone through - the Democrats would have lost big time in court, and alienated their favorite demographic to exploit - the urban black vote. Maybe Obama in an alternate universe would have been a gun-toting free speech champion? Of course, they also wanted to ban any literature concerning the use and manufacture of weapons, such as the Improvised Munitions Handbook dot PDF, ha ha.
By their own admission, the stacking of fees, laws, compliance activities, and penalties was to discourage the ownership of guns in the United States. They would have leveraged the RICO act to attempt to take down organizations like the NRA, FPC, and GOA, and any other pro-2A group that came to their mind. In their minds, a draw-down of ownership and interest would have also enabled them to campaign for the disarmament of the very police who helped them push citizen disarmament to begin with. That's right - HCI would have turned on their very own golems in the end. How they planned on disarming the police hasn't been readily revealed, but presumably the military would have been mobilized, which would have likely backfired in their face.
Presuming things even got that far to begin with.
There's Never A Buck Stops Here Moment
There's never been even a close-to-being truthful moment where a gun control advocate has declared, "OK, this bill, if enacted into law, is where we'll stop - pinky swear!". Whether it's a hot mic incident, internal memos like what has just been discussed here, or out-and-out calls for State violence to confiscate the evil black rifles, the roadmap of gun control always ends with confiscation.
While we fight to restore the Second Amendment to it's true intent, the battle will always be ongoing. Whether it is a war of words, or if it unthinkably devolves into something more kinetic, the efforts of gun control enthusiasts must be thwarted at every turn.
Keep your powder dry, friends - the next few years are going to be interesting, as if they weren't interesting enough already...
Get Yourself A Gun And Learn It
This is a firearms blog, so we're going to recommend guns. Of course don't forget other things like medical, comms, doing your Area Study, and so on. There's better sources than RGG on those topics, but for firepower, we have you covered.
Ideally you'll at least want either a basic rifle, i.e. an AR-15, or a pistol, i.e. a GLOCK 19, to start. Both are exceedingly common firearms with plenty of accessories, spare parts, training, and support. However, in some restricted areas, both an AR and a GLOCK are hard to get easily, and you may have to settle for a shotgun for quickly arming yourself. It beats a sharp stick. Note, the in-house counsel wants to remind you that we're talking the legal acquisition of guns here. We're still working on abolishing gun control, and we don't want you in jail. Unfortunately you'll have to play ball in this regard. But anyways, here are some basic suggestions for getting armed.
| Firearm | Cost | Buy Now |
|---|---|---|
| Radical Firearms RF00028 AR-15 | $469 | Buy Now! |
| GLOCK 19 Gen6 9mm Pistol | $620 | Buy Now! |
| Mossberg 590 Shotgun | $621 | Buy Now! |
Learn how to make guns, as well.
| 3D Printer | Cost | Buy Now |
|---|---|---|
| Ender Creality 3 V3 SE | $186 | Buy Now! |
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