During the May 21 airing of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) defended his plan for a government-sponsored “assault weapons” buyback with criminal prosecution of Americans who do not comply.

Carlson told Swalwell the plan amounts to a forced buyback, which is tantamount to confiscation, but Swalwell rejected the label of confiscation, yet admitted that individuals who kept them past the buyback period would be prosecuted if caught.

Carlson suggested Swalwell is trying to “confiscate…[an] entire class of firearms.”

Swalwell replied:

I’m not calling for confiscation. What I’m saying is we should invest in the buyback, that we should restrict any weapons that aren’t bought back to gun clubs, hunting clubs, shooting ranges. Keep them there, where it is safe, not on our streets. And if you are caught, just like, if you were caught with drugs or anything else, they have probable cause to go into your home and you have one of these weapons, yes, you’d be prosecuted.

Carlson then read from a USA Today opinion piece in which Swalwell wrote: “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.”

Swalwell exempts law enforcement from the confiscatory buyback and, as Carlson pointed out, exempts the individuals who guard Congress. Carlson asked Swalwell why average Americans cannot have the same protection in their homes that Congress would continue to enjoy if the confiscatory buyback occurred.

After a bit of back and forth, Swalwell said, “Why do you need an AR-15 to protect your house?”

Carlson responded, “I don’t know, why do you need one? You have them in your building where you work.”