Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) made clear his plan to ban and buyback 15 million “assault weapons” during an April 8 appearance on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert.

This is the third time Swalwell has pushed for a ban and buyback plan, which is confiscatory in nature, insomuch as it is a forced buyback. On May 21, 2018–the date that he publicly introduced the idea–Swalwell told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson of his plan for a government-sponsored “assault weapons” buyback and made clear there would be criminal prosecution of Americans who do not comply.

On April 3, 2019, he reiterated the ban and buyback scheme via Twitter, where he said, “We recently passed background check bills in the House. We must ban and buyback assault weapons next.”

His latest push for the ban and buyback includes an estimate that there are 15 million “assault weapons” in private hands in America. He wants the government to take away all of them. It should be noted that on September 17, 2018, Breitbart News reported National Shooting Sports Foundation numbers showing over 16 million AR and AK-style firearms were manufactured for Americans between 1990 and 2016 alone. In other words, the popularity of those particular firearms is far greater than Swalwell imagines and the number owned by Americans far exceeds 15 million.

Swalwell is also pushing the criminalization of private gun sales via universal background checks.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.