Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill
Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill. (House Television via AP)

Illinois Representative Sean Casten feels deeply that “we have too many guns.” His innovative solution to this pressing problem: a buyback. But not just any ol’ buyback.

The Daily Herald reported on it, saying:

Already an advocate of stricter gun control laws, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove this week voiced support for a national buyback program in the U.S. similar to the one implemented in Australia 24 years ago.

“If we passed all the greatest laws in the world, the guns are still out there,” Casten said Tuesday during an online endorsement interview with the Daily Herald and Shaw Media.

In other words, a mandatory “buyback,” otherwise knowns as minimally compensated confiscation. According to the Daily Herald, Casten has a long history of gun prohibition love and gun hate:

The availability of guns in the U.S. is a source of frustration for Casten, who ousted six-term Republican incumbent Peter Roskam in 2018.

Casten has called for a new ban on assault weapons to replace the one that expired in 2004. He also supports expanding federal law to mandate criminal background checks for all gun purchases, not just those involving licensed dealers as is now required.

He has a deep abiding desire for America to look more like Oz, gun rights-wise.

Casten, who has touted the success of gun buyback programs before, suggested the US follow Australia’s lead.

“They took a whole bunch of guns out of circulation, and they haven’t had a mass shooting since,” Casten said. “Why don’t we do that?”

Rep. Casten admitted he isn’t sure our American culture would work well with the cash-for-handing-over-your-guns method that Australia used (and he’s right). But hey, we need to do something about all those legally-owned firearms owned by law-abiding citizens and they aren’t going to confiscate themselves.

Because criminals aren’t the problem, it’s the tools they use. Of course not.

Casten has something of a history of resorting to insulting gun owners and he wasn’t even very imaginative about it:

Last month, the (Jean) Ives campaign criticized Casten for saying “having small genitals is not a sufficient reason to own a gun” during a recent online forum. Casten made the comment after questioning why people need to own guns and subsequently called his remark a joke “about the toxic masculinity that has infected this whole debate.”

Ah, the old “haha, I was kidding” deflection method.

It shouldn’t be much of a shock that a Democratic representative from Illinois is pushing a mandatory buyback. In some ways it’s actually nice to see anti-gun politicians boldly admit that yeah, we really are coming for your guns. At least the gloves are coming off and some honesty occasionally manages to shine through.

For those of you thinking you don’t have to worry because you don’t live in Illinois — or California, or New York, or New Jersey, or Maryland — try to remember how these things tend to happen in waves. Plus Casten reflects the views of a lot of his fellow Democrats in the US House of Representatives. It’s a never-ending fight.

Being an active Second Amendment supporter is important and whether or not gun owners get out and vote this November is more important than ever. And remember, vote on the issues, not the party. Just because someone is a Democrat or a Republican doesn’t (necessarily) mean they’re pushing for the values and laws you yourself support. Do your homework and vote accordingly.

As for those of you who do live in Illinois’ 6th congressional district in the Chicago suburbs, you’ve got an opportunity to let Casten what you think of his confiscatory views. Make yourself heard loud and clear.

 

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109 COMMENTS

    • Any gunm I own I would sell if the price was right. For the government takers that price would be an arm and a leg, MeatCleavers Unite

      • Well, we’ve seen that an AR can cost you an arm. But I’m still waiting to see if it can cost a leg too.

      • “For the government takers that price would be an arm and a leg,…”

        They can’t have my ‘third leg’… 🙂

      • IIRC, you could get $800AUS for a rusty Lee Enfield barreled action. Even in Aussie play money, that’s significant.

        The more forward thinking were importing barrels of them at scrap prices before the import window closed.

    • Same here. Maybe someone should tell the ass clowns how crime in oz went up, things like assault, robbery and rape because criminals prefer easy unarmed prey. But facts don’t count with the pieces of trash.

    • We couldn’t transfer or sale Firearms to Illinois public officials, they wouldn’t pass the background check. Somehow I think they would want them immediately and not for the waiting time they have mandated.

      I was taking mine to Missouri in a boat from the Illinois River, and when crossing the Mississippi I was sideswiped by a barge and lost them. If anyone down river finds them let me know.

  2. We don’t have too many guns! This is a free country belonging to THE PEOPLE.

    We have too many sissy/panty wearing demotator politicians who cater to the too many criminals that we have. Get rid of the criminals (also includes the demotators) and crime will go down. 🤬

    • The only time I can honestly say “Gee, I think I might have too many guns” is when I can’t pick them all up at the same time. Strapped, holstered, slung, and held…I can only bear so many arms, ya know.

      The rest are backups. Two is one, one is none, and all that.

      Or twenty is nineteen, or forty is the new thirty, or…

      • We get it. You have a lot of guns. Why not stop humble bragging and add something of substance to the discussion(s).

        • “Why not stop humble bragging and add something of substance to the discussion(s).”

          You’re new around here, aren’t you? The TTAG comment section is kinda ‘loose’, and we like it that way… 🙂

        • @Capn Connie,

          Just wait until Dan posts another article on the merits of 9mm, or .45 ACP, or the “greased lightning” 6.5 Creedmore, or “the one round to rule them all” 10mm, or…

          Then you’ll see everyone put their beers down and start in the verbal fisticuffs known as the Caliber Wars. Everyone will be boasting about their gunz-n-favorite-cartridges.

          Just take it all in and enjoy the ride. And yes, I do have a lot of guns. Too many for me to possibly carry.

      • Haz said: “The only time I can honestly say “Gee, I think I might have too many guns” is when I can’t pick them all up at the same time.”

        Haz, you disappoint me. If there’s a time when you CAN hold all your guns at one time you definitely don’t have enough guns. But don’t feel bad. The good people here will contribute to a Go Fund Me page if you set one up. I promise, no joke, to contribute $10 if you do.

        Just set up the account claiming you want to rid your home of all the poisonous nuggets of lead.
        Or, you want to further the manufacturing of metal art. I’m sure others here can think of something better.

      • There is no such thing as ‘too many guns’. There is only “Safe’s not full yet” and “Need a bigger safe”.

  3. Sounds like a guy who needs to go and Eat a Bag of Dicks. There are Over 400 Million guns in Private hands in America and over One Trillion rounds of ammo. So, No. We Will Not Comply. Go Fuck Yourself. And, if you intend to go to Licensed Dealers to obtain the identities of our customers, We Will Burn all of the forms (records of sales) to protect those identities!

      • 4473s is the paperwork kept by the dealer. The digital piece kept by the BAFTE showing that you cleared your background check doesn’t contain make, model, or serial numbers of the firearms you bought. It certainly doesn’t show the private sales that may or may not have come after.

        4473s can also be destroyed after a certain amount of time, so even if the ATF went to the dealers they couldn’t possibly show ALL previous sales. Just the most recent ones.

        Even if Congress DID pass a mandatory buyback they’d have to pack the Supreme Court, massively increase the ATF’s budget, and survive politically for the duration while sending LE door to door to take people’s property.

        I somehow suspect that we’re a long ways away from that.

      • 4473s say nothing about subsequent private sales that at this point are both legal and common. Just an instantaneous snapshot.

      • It doesn’t matter. Once it leaves the store there is no way of tracking. I sold all my guns years ago. Prove me wrong

  6. to buy something back you would have had to sell it to me first. And so there it is, the government believes it gave me the privilege of owning a gunm which it can buy back

    • Thats kinda like a rental, and you become the middle man in the transaction. You get the bill an the law gets the weapon. Not a good thing, we all need to get together an say enough is enough, i would love to add to this comment but i fear legal backlash would certainly follow.. like a posse with 1/2 a million members, to meet an greet sum of the folks that dont have our mindset. a voting block, but here in CA.we dont get to vote on anything, except school taxes. firearm an ammo laws should be on the ballot.

  7. No one could pay me enough for my Hi Point JHP 45. It goes BANG, when I pull the trigger. So does my Daniel Defense AR15. In fact it goes BANG when pull and release the trigger. It’s not for sale either.

    • Yeah, double barrel shotguns, no pumps or autoloaders, not even that Turkish lever shotgun.

      The police can pop in anytime to inspect your storage. Oh, and no handguns, either. Self defense? Not on your life. Might offend the Muslims.

      A nation with less than 1/10th our population lecturing us about our “lax gun laws”?

      OK, mate.

  9. Casten is also a “scientist” and pushes for draconion law’s to “save” us from our weather. Riddle me this…Australia is a continental US sized nation with a population less than Texas. Good luck getting 330000000 to comply. Oh and I’ve been to Downer’s Grove. We can easily find you😏😏😏😏😏

  10. “They took a whole bunch of guns out of circulation, and they haven’t had a mass shooting since,” Casten said. “Why don’t we do that?”

    Perhaps because this isn’t Australia. We have a different system of government, a rather unique form where citizens don’t get their rights from government. While they haven’t had a mass shooting they have had an epidemic of other forms of violent crime. Yes, gun violence is an issue which can be found in any Democrat stronghold where extreme restrictions on the 2nd amendment punish everyone but the criminals. Illinois Representative Casten’s proposals are a threat to everyone’s freedom.

  11. The guy in the KelTek more bang for the buck commercial looks exactly like a guy I worked with at a restaurant. I told him get out of this town before you wind up broke and working at the sawmill. He did, and he did. Now if that’s you Brandon, I’m jealous.

  14. Has this dimwit ever said how many criminals he thinks will comply with this new law? Then again, nobody ever asks these gun control/ban A@@hats how many criminals they expect to comply with their edicts. I guess the truth is quite easy to see. Make as many law abiding people as possible defense-less. After all, they have protection of the armed Capital Police and of course the DC Police. Sometimes I just want to cry at the stupidity of the Democrats. They probably would have been the loyal colonialists siding with the British in 1776.

  17. The fact the the US is swimming in lawfully owned guns, but Antifa and BLM protests haven’t been mowed down in a siege of lead yet, demonstrates just how lawful and restrained the average gun owner is.

    Do they really want to stir the pot to the point where thousands of marksmen, 3-gunners, IPSC/USPPA competitors, renegade cops, and current and ex military vets decide to “peacefully” revolt? Consider how stirred up the current rioting cities are with basically a handful of instigators. Then consider the result of stirring up 3-5% of the millions of current gun owners. Then re-read Yamamoto’s famous quote after they bombed Pearl Harbor.

      • Keep quiet, don’t scare them Marxist city folkses until we see the white of their eyes.

        Then appear from behind single wides on riding lawn mowers without decks and mag dump your bubba SKS like you were shooting at a flaming refrigerator full of tannerite. God bless America.

  19. Let’s ignore the legality of buybacks. Let’s ignore that the bad guys would ignore it. Let’s assume they could convince gun owners this was a good idea.

    Do these assholes ever do the math of what that would cost, even if they were “buying back” the guns at half their value, let alone full value? And the costs of all the manpower and paperwork? Or is this just another “I dunno, just let the taxpayers pay for it” thing?

    • Warloc
      Australian government spent almost a billion dollars. Many guns were sold at 200% of market value. I got almost $1000 for a Ruger 10/.22 with a few accessories.

  20. I have a few I’d agree to let them buyback; my cost +10-25% depending on market price for those models at the time of buyback. As for there being too many guns in the USA . . . nah, too many crooks . . . on the street, and in corporations and politics.

  23. Where to start –
    1. Australia has lousy firearm laws as I’ve mentioned here many times. Varies by state as does USA.

    2. Only some firearms (mostly semi auto are hard to own). I found it easier to buy here than in California or Washington state. Once you have a licence in Queensland it’s a 2 day check time or less depending on police response. Not good but not impossible. Would I like to be able to walk in and buy like I used to, yes but politics will not change.

    3. There are now officially double the firearms here than before the gun grab.

    4. Mass murders here are mostly by fire as has happened many times around the world.

    5. Criminals do not follow the law. Sydney bikies make MAC10 copies. Attempted mass murder / crazy person this week used some sort of bow and arrows in shopping centre. He wounded a 16 year old girl before people stopped him.

    6. There was no gun lobby or NRA style organisation here before 1996 as there was not any need. So the government did not have any organised opposition.

    • re: points #2 and #6

      It still is easy to buy a firearm in WA state, unless you’ve tried to buy a semiauto rifle here within the past year or two. This state is definitely going downhill.

      And there clearly was a need for an NRA style gun owner’s association (or, ideally, a *better* one) in Australia prior to 1996, as illustrated by the government stomping all over you with no real opposition.

  24. First, your state is broke, how you going to pay for these buybacks
    Second, a mandatory buy back is a nice way of saying confiscation.
    Third, you can’t buy back what you never owned.
    Forth, knowingly selling a firearm to anyone who can’t own one is a crime, the government can NOT pass a background check.
    Fifth, you have no legal authority to make such a demand.
    Sixth, MOLON LABE

    • “5 for every Communist, Antifa, or BLM thug. 1 for each security guard who works for a leftist. Unlimited for Leftist Elites. None for anyone else.” -would be how he would answer if he was ever honest about anything.

  27. Obviously the thing to do was back when Australia (and now New Zealand) made this awful mistake in judgment. Buy up all their confiscated guns and ship them to the USA where they would be safe. Personally I’d of been very pleased to store, oh, let’s say up to ten Aussie or New Zealander boomsticks for the day they regain their rights and need them back.

    I wouldn’t even charge them nuth’n.

    I mean … we’re allies … right?

  30. Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile. They’ll scream for a mile, and take every inch they can swindle. There is no dealing with these thieves.

  31. I would like to volunteer to be the subject for him to demonstrate how he, personally, could come and confiscate my guns, particularly when he realizes he’d get all the bullets first.

  32. Of course as a progressive he thinks law abiding Americans have too many guns. They can’t implement their final solution, including reparations and “redistribution of wealth” aka property/410Ks/IRAs/etc, and have us all under their thumb when we are heavily armed and they fear us like they should. The good people of New Zealand don’t seem to be buying their crap either.

    • A treasury spokesman commented there was19T in private accounts and they were looking at that during the 2008 crash. Don’t think for a minute they aren’t looking at it now that it’s more than doubled.
      The final answer is to grab it all and give us annuities or IOUs. It’s happened elsewhere.

  33. The buyback in Australia was possible simply because Australia does not have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Firearms ownership in Australia has always been relegated to sport and/or hunting. The purpose and intent of the second amendment is to ensure that we the people have the tools necessary to violently resist tyranny and oppression a buyback here will result in violent resistance.

    • Oz and the UK also believed the government would step up and protect them. The UK went for a surveillance state and uses it to harass and fine people while criminals get off. Oz faired better since the aboriginal people were bought off by the welfare state and most of the country is quite rural. NSW is a problem area and they look the other way on crime increases.

      We are quite a different country and it will not go smoothly if they try this here. We know it and the left refuses to accept it be sure they think police will just make it happen if they say so. The events of this summer should given them pause.

  34. It is Americans rights to have guns as many as they want and the government Can Not INFRINGE on Americans Rights that includes Religion and Guns who ever even tries need hanged till dead it is Treason against Americans and we need to enforce this including any government officials that try and Change , Twist, Damage, Destort, ignore, Our Constitution as Written

    • Nice sentiment. But sentiments are not reality. The reality is that you would need a organized military force at least as powerful as the combined military and law enforcement of the US Government and all States, and be able to supply it. Good luck with that.

      • That is preposterous. Drone strikes in the suburbs doesn’t play well on tv. My son is active duty. Is he and all of our sons going to take us out?

        • Precisely. I have been saying this since I retired from the AF 30 years ago, exactly who believes the men I served with would come to your home and shoot you? Don’t be stupid, the government would never be so stupid as to call out the military and give them the keys to their fighter jets, tanks and aircraft carriers to attack citizens, the government would all be dead before the citizens even knew the order had been given. And I mean dead, not “under arrest” or some such, most generals a president might issue such an order to would shoot the mofo on the spot, even if he had to borrow a gun from the secret service. Especially to those who have dedicated their lives to the defense of our country, this is not a joke.

  36. Illinois Rep. Sean Casten another sick Gun Control democRat slave master carrying on an agenda rooted in racism and genocide. All that deranged democRat ratbassturd needs is a sheet and a swastika and he’d be complete.
    |
    VOTE TRUMP/PENCE 2020.

    • You are right about Casten. Jeanne Ives would be much better and I did vote for her in the primary for Governor here, but the deck was stacked against her by Rauner and his pal Rahm.
      Hopefully she can take Casten’s seat in the upcoming election.

  37. Since I never have purchased a firearm from any branch of government I have none they can “buy Back”. I do have one that I will be happy to sell to anyone, government included, for a couple hundred bucks. It is a broken Taurus 605 that Taurus, despite their “Lifetime Warranty”, could not, or would not, repair. Picked it up in a trade along with two Ruger pistols. No problem with the pistols, in fact the LC9 became my summertime EDC.

  38. He can have mine. 10 million each is my bottom line. Bring 600 million and change. Small bills, hard to break anything over a $20 these days.

  39. Maybe Kasten needs to Emmigrate to Australia, and take his f’d up commie politics, and f’d up commie constituents with him.

  40. The guy who brings up “toxic masculinity” doesn’t seem to realize that by doing this he made himself the joke.

  41. Mark it down.

    I will not register or voluntarily surrender firearms.

    I’ve never owned a boat, there was never an accident.

  42. Humm since you cant buy back what you the US gov never owned?

    Min bid on any of mine is 1 million in gold TAX FREE! per gun….on the few that I ‘want’ you to have.

  43. Are any of these people who claim there are too many guns ever going to show us the data that establishes how the quantity of guns impacts crime? Are any of them ever going to tell us how many they think is enough? If they are so sure that there are “too many” surely they know how many is optimal.

    Just once, I’d like someone to explain to me how reducing the number of guns I, and all the other peaceful citizens, own is supposed to reduce the number of guns the criminals have. How does that work? If you take away my 30-06 rifle does some gun fairy take away some gang banger’s stolen .40? Or do they have to be the same thing? I don’t have a Hi-Point so, if that is how it works, some thug is still gonna have his.

    • Yeah, like being forced to pay your “fair share” in taxes, right? Have we ever heard a HINT of what our “fair share” might be?

  48. I’ll sell every gun that I bought from the government to the government.

    The ones I bought from retailers and individuals, I will keep.

    • Maybe they take comfort in the fact the dead and injured were not shot. The aboriginals clearly have a beef with whitey and the government pays for the sins of the past.

  52. I hope this deceitful crooked socialist “LBJ/KGB” style high treason sonofabitch loses his ass in the next election for Congress!

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