What do you think would happen under Arkansas Toothpick's scenario?
Methinks that would have trouble standing up in court due to “the right to keep ... arms”. $2K annually is a bit much.
More likely they’d make it “reasonable” with a “mere” $10 tax or so - something that one would be very hard-pressed to argue is an “infringement” worth arguing over. It would, of course, be up to the owner to file the annual tax paperwork in a timely fasion ... and an awful lot of people would either face confiscation (for failing to file) or just give up trying to keep them due to hassle. Even confiscations would be minimal, just giving the option to nail someone with “tax evasion” when brought to the feds’ attention. (I was thinking about this when renewing my C&R license ... the deadline was sneaking up on me, and the paperwork had disappeared into a pile.)
Remember Ayn Rand’s oft-repeated point: make _everyone_ a criminal, and they’re easy to control. Just nag people into compliance & submission. Don’t eradicate the opposition immediately, just squeeze them slowly, winning a war of subtle attrition.
Hence the danger of a “reasonable review” standard emerging from _Heller_: the right just gets bled out slowly.
Considering Charlie Rangle is in charge of the nation’s budget... I’d put nothing passed the dims... The 1968 Crime Bill was copied almost directly from gun control passed by the NASIS in the 1930s....