Krauthammer: The Only Way to Reduce Gun Violence Is to Confiscate Guns, But...

Charles Krauthammer (Fox News)

During Fox News' "Special Report" Wednesday night, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said no proposed assault weapons ban will have a significant impact on gun violence -- unless the federal government is willing to violate the Constitution and confiscate all the guns.

"I think we are going to end up exactly where we started," Krauthammer said, referring to the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

He said an assault weapons ban might make laws tighter, but statistics show such a ban does not actually decrease gun violence. If the U.S. were to have an "honest" debate about guns, he said, "gun owners would admit that yes, of course the guns contribute to homicide."

Krauthammer noted that Japan had just 11 gun homicides last year, and "that's a weekend in Chicago."

"We have a system that believes the rights, the Second Amendment, in other words, predate the Republic," he said. "And the point of having a government as in the Declaration is to secure the rights. In Britain you have no such right."

"So unless you're willing to confiscate, which would be unconstitutional and would cause an insurrection...these things are not going to have an effect, except at the margins," he concluded.

Watch the segment via Fox News below (begins at around 1:30):

While confiscation may seem extreme, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently said in a radio interview that “Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun but permit it.”

(H/T: Fox News Insider)