As if we don’t have more important things to deal with, one Connecticut Democrat in Congress would like to allot $2K of your tax money to anyone around the country who turns in a so called “assault rifle” to the local authorities voluntarily. The odd part of this story is that this isn’t even the first time the Democrats have tried it. A similar measure failed even before they lost more ground in Congress, but apparently that’s not enough to dissuade some of them. So… here we go again.

Gun owners would receive tax breaks for voluntarily turning in high-powered assault rifles under new legislation proposed Monday.

The Support Assault Firearm Elimination and Education of our (SAFER) Streets Act expected to be reintroduced next week by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) would provide gun owners with an incentive to turn in their firearms to local police departments.

“Assault weapons are not about hunting, or even self-defense,” DeLauro said. “There is no reason on earth, other than to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, that anyone needs a gun designed for a battlefield.”

[…]

Gun owners would receive tax breaks for voluntarily turning in high-powered assault rifles under new legislation proposed Monday.

She’s talking about yet another plan to convince gun owners to turn in their weapons voluntarily by dangling some taxpayer cash in front of them. On the local level, some municipalities have just offered up cash on the spot, but that clearly won’t work for the feds so they’ll have to offer you a tax credit. New York has run a number of these programs over the years, with similar ones taking place in other cities and states. The results have been dubious to put it charitably. Many states who invested heavily in these schemes have had to take a second look at them after there was essentially no change in gun violence. Many of the weapons which were turned in were not functional and wouldn’t have been useful in crimes anyway. Others turned out to be collector pieces and antiques which might have looked nice on somebody’s wall when fully restored, but weren’t going to be showing up in a convenience store robbery any time soon. Now they are out of circulation forever.

This latest Democrat plan comes amid reports that the President is preparing to roll out a bunch of new “pen and phone” actions aimed at limiting gun rights. Meanwhile, out in the real America, how are folks feeling about expanded gun control laws? In the opinion of at least one sheriff in Oregon, the welcome mat isn’t exactly being rolled out.

Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller said he won’t enforce any federal regulation “offending the constitutional rights of my citizens.” He won’t permit federal officers to come to his county to enforce such laws either, he said.

An Oregon sheriff says he will not enforce any federal regulation that President Barack Obama lays out in his package of gun control proposals Wednesday.

Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller joins several other public officials across the nation who have decided to square off with the White House even before it outlines what its plans are for expanded measures.

Mueller sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden this week saying he won’t enforce any federal regulation “offending the constitutional rights of my citizens.” He won’t permit federal officers to come to his county to enforce such laws either, he said.

In some ways this is almost good news for conservatives. The tide of public opinion has turned and Americans find gun rights to be important by a significant majority. But the Democrats can’t help themselves and are still essentially in thrall to the far Left wing of their base. For the time being at least, DeLauro’s bill is almost certainly not going anywhere, but it might be nice to have a few of the remaining red state Democrats be forced to take a vote on it.