Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, has been rather quiet about gun control of late, but as a senator, she touted a “mandatory gun buyback program.” Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, a Minnesota Democrat, wants to “make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.” The American people deserve a hard look at both these policies.

Gov. Walz never carried weapons “in war” but he is obviously referencing the AR-15 rifle. The version of that weapon available to the public is not military grade and requires a separate pull of the trigger for every shot. The civilian AR-15 is no different from many semi-automatic rifles available to people in calibers from .22 on up.

No firearm has ever posed a threat all by itself, without human agency, something Gov. Walz and many others fail to make clear. In a similar style, Vice President Harris’ mandatory buyback program dodges a key reality.

The firearms that so trouble the vice president are not purchased from the government, even in the case of military surplus rifles such as the M1 carbine, restricted to semi-automatic operation. The government, therefore, cannot “buy back” the guns in any meaningful sense, and a mandatory buyback would........

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