Opponents of gun restrictions often argue that even seemingly modest restrictions are the first step towards total bans on all guns or all handguns.

              Some proponents of gun restrictions mock this:  No-one is talking about gun bans, they say -- the slippery slope concern is groundless.  In the words of Martin Dyckman, associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times (Dec. 12, 1993, at 3D), "no one is seriously proposing to ban or confiscate all guns.  You hear that only from the gun lobby itself, which whistles up this bogeyman whenever some reasonable regulation is proposed."

              Who is right here?  Is it true that no-one is seriously proposing broad gun bans?  Is it true that the slippery slope concern is just a bogeyman?  Here are a few relevant quotes on this point.  (All of them have been verified by me, Eugene Volokh, Professor of Law, UCLA Law School, with help from our excellent law library.)

              1.  Quotes from gun control proponents praising the slippery slope, and urging mild restrictions as steps toward a total ban.

              2.  Citations to laws that in fact ban all guns or all handguns.

              3.  Quotes from politicians urging gun bans.

              4.  Quotes from leading media figures and institutions urging gun bans.

              5.  Quotes from advocacy groups urging gun bans.

              These are of course only a subset of all the material that's available.  

              In fact, the assault weapons ban will have no significant effect either on the crime rate or on personal security.  Nonetheless, it is a good idea . . . .  Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation.

              Charles Krauthammer (columnist), Disarm the Citizenry. But Not Yet, Washington Post, Apr. 5, 1996 (boldface added).

              We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily -- given the political realities -- going to be very modest. . . .  [W]e'll have to start working again to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen the next law, and maybe again and again.  Right now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice.  Our ultimate goal -- total control of handguns in the United States -- is going to take time. . . .  The first problem is to slow down the number of handguns being produced and sold in this country.  The second problem is to get handguns registered.  The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition-except for the military, police, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors-totally illegal.

              Richard Harris, A Reporter at Large: Handguns,  New Yorker, July 26, 1976, at 53, 58 (quoting Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc.) (boldface added, italics in original).

              Rep. William L. Clay (D-St. Louis, Mo.), said the Brady Bill is "the minimum step" that Congress should take to control handguns.  "We need much stricter gun control, and eventually we should bar the ownership of handguns except in a few cases," Clay said.

              Robert L. Koenig, NRA-Backed Measure May Derail Brady Bill, St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 8, 1993, at 1A (boldface added).

              [Peter] Jennings:  And the effect of the assault rifle ban in Stockton?  The price went up, gun stores sold out and police say that fewer than 20 were turned in.  Still, some people in Stockton argue you cannot measure the effect that way. They believe there's value in making a statement that the implements of violence are unacceptable in our culture.

              [Stockton, California] Mayor [Barbara] Fass:  I think you have to do it a step at a time and I think that is what the NRA is most concerned about, is that it will happen one very small step at a time, so that by the time people have "woken up" -- quote -- to what's happened, it's gone farther than what they feel the consensus of American citizens would be.  But it does have to go one step at a time and the beginning of the banning of semi-assault military weapons, that are military weapons, not "household" weapons, is the first step."

              ABC News Special, Peter Jennings Reporting: Guns, April 11, 1991, available on LEXIS, NEWS database, SCRIPT file (boldface added).  

              Washington, D.C. now bans the possession of all handguns (though subject to a grandfather clause that allows handguns owned by residents before 1976) and the possession of rifles and shotguns unless they are locked and unloaded.  It is thus illegal to keep any guns in such a way that they are readily available for self-defense.  D.C. Code §§ 6-2311, 6-2312, 6-2372.

              Chicago bans the possession of all handguns (again, subject to a grandfather clause).  Chicago Municipal Code § 8-20-040(a), -050(c).

              Several Chicago suburbs -- Morton Grove, Evanston, Oak Park, and Wilmette -- do the same.  See, e.g., Morton Grove, Ill., ord. 81-11 (enacted June 8, 1981) (providing that "[n]o person shall possess, in the Village . . . [a]ny handgun, unless the same has been rendered permanently inoperative").

              In 1982, San Francisco banned handguns, but a state court concluded that under California law such decisions were reserved to the state legislature and could not be made by individual cities.  See San Francisco Handgun Ordinance (enacted June 28, 1992).  

              Former Sen. Bill Bradley, Al Gore's sole rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, is considering including a ban on the sale of handguns in an aggressive gun control plan that he will announce later in his campaign, the Associated Press reports.

              "I'm considering all the alternatives," the former New Jersey lawmaker said Monday in an interview with reporter Ron Fournier.  Mr. Bradley already has endorsed a " handgun card, " a photo identity card required of anybody carrying a handgun.

              Greg Pierce, Where's the Outrage?, Washington Times, May 26, 1999, at A6.

              Mayor Dianne Feinstein [now U.S. Senator, D.-Cal.] moved yesterday to make San Francisco the nation's first major city to ban handguns for personal use.

              UPI, Feinstein Seeks To Ban Handguns In San Francisco, Feb. 26, 1982.

              Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros and Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke signed the Communitarian Network's The Case for Domestic Disarmament, which among other thing said:

              There is little sense in gun registration.  What we need to significantly enhance public safety is domestic disarmament . . . .  Domestic disarmament entails the removal of arms from private hands . . . .  Given the proper political support by the people who oppose the pro-gun lobby, legislation to remove the guns from private hands, acts like the legislation drafted by Senator John Chafee [to ban handguns], can be passed in short order.

              I shortly will introduce legislation banning the sale, manufacture or possession of handguns (with exceptions for law enforcement and licensed target clubs). . . .  It is time to act.  We cannot go on like this.  Ban them!

              Sen. John H. Chafee (R.-R.I.), In View of Handguns' Effects, There's Only One Answer: A Ban, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 15, 1992, at 13A.

              "My staff and I right now are working on a comprehensive gun-control bill.  We don't have all the details, but for instance, regulating the sale and purchase of bullets.  Ultimately, I would like to see the manufacture and possession of handguns banned except for military and police use.  But that's the endgame.  And in the meantime, there are some specific things that we can do with legislation."  Evan Osnos, Bobby Rush; Democrat, U.S. House of Representatives, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 5, 1999, at C3 (quoting Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.)).

              Mr. Speaker, my bill prohibits the importation, exportation, manufacture, sale, purchase, transfer, receipt, possession, or transportation of handguns and handgun ammunition.  It establishes a 6-month grace period for the turning in of handguns.  It provides many exceptions for gun clubs, hunting clubs, gun collectors, and other people of that kind.

              Rep. Major Owens (D-Brooklyn, N.Y.), 139 Cong. Rec. H9088 at H9094, Nov. 10, 1993.

              Rep. William L. Clay (D-St. Louis, Mo.), said the Brady Bill is "the minimum step" that Congress should take to control handguns.  "We need much stricter gun control, and eventually we should bar the ownership of handguns except in a few cases," Clay said.

              Robert L. Koenig, NRA-Backed Measure May Derail Brady Bill, St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 8, 1993, at 1A.

              Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran is proposing a wide-ranging package of laws that would make the state's gun control regulations among the strictest in the nation and says his ultimate goal is a ban on handguns.

              Daniel LeDuc, Tough Laws For Guns Proposed In Maryland; Attorney General Says Goal Is Ban, Wash. Post, Oct. 20, 1999, at A01.

              [Peter] Jennings:  And the effect of the assault rifle ban in Stockton?  The price went up, gun stores sold out and police say that fewer than 20 were turned in.  Still, some people in Stockton argue you cannot measure the effect that way. They believe there's value in making a statement that the implements of violence are unacceptable in our culture.

              [Stockton, California] Mayor [Barbara] Fass:  I think you have to do it a step at a time and I think that is what the NRA is most concerned about, is that it will happen one very small step at a time, so that by the time people have "woken up" -- quote -- to what's happened, it's gone farther than what they feel the consensus of American citizens would be.  But it does have to go one step at a time and the beginning of the banning of semi-assault military weapons, that are military weapons, not "household" weapons, is the first step.

              ABC News Special, Peter Jennings Reporting: Guns, April 11, 1991, available on LEXIS, NEWS database, SCRIPT file.

              In a high-stakes political gamble, [Democrat-Farmer-Labor Minnesota] gubernatorial candidate Tony Bouza proposed a strict gun control program Tuesday that includes the confiscation and purchase by the state of most privately owned handguns.

              Robert Whereatt, Bouza Says He'd Confiscate Majority of Handguns, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Sept. 7, 1994, at 1A.  (In Minnesota, the Democratic party is known as the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party.)  

              Why should America adopt a policy of near-zero tolerance for private gun ownership?  Because it's the only alternative to the present insanity.  Without both strict limits on access to new weapons and aggressive efforts to reduce the supply of existing weapons, no one can be safer.

              Editorial, Taming The Monster: Get Rid of the Guns, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 28, 1993, at B6 (boldface added).

              No presidential candidate has yet come out for the most effective proposal to check the terror of gunfire: a ban on the general sale, manufacture and ownership of handguns as well as assault-style weapons.

              Editorial, Guns Along the Campaign Trail, Washington Post, July 19, 1999, at A18 (boldface added).

              There is no reason for anyone in this country, anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use a handgun.

              I used to think handguns could be controlled by laws about registration, by laws requiring waiting periods for purchasers, by laws making sellers check out the past of buyers.

              I now think the only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns.  And the only way to do that is to change the Constitution.

              Michael Gartner (then president of NBC News), Glut of Guns: What Can We Do About Them?, USA Today, Jan. 16, 1992, at 9A (boldface added).

              In fact, the assault weapons ban will have no significant effect either on the crime rate or on personal security.  Nonetheless, it is a good idea . . . .  Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation.

              Charles Krauthammer (nationally syndicated columnist), Disarm the Citizenry. But Not Yet, Washington Post, Apr. 5, 1996 (boldface added).

              "I would like to dispute that.  Truthfully. I know it's an amendment.  I know it's in the Constitution.  But you know what?  Enough! I would like to say, I think there should be a law -- and I know this is extreme -- that no one can have a gun in the U.S.  If you have a gun, you go to jail.  Only the police should have guns."

              Shannon Hawkins, Rosie Takes on the NRA, Ottawa Sun, April 29, 1999, at 55 (quoting talk show hostess Rosie O'Donnell) (boldface added).

              My guess [is] . . . that the great majority of Americans are saying they favor gun control when they really mean gun banishment. . . .  I think the country has long been ready to restrict the use of guns, except for hunting rifles and shotguns, and now I think we're prepared to get rid of the damned things entirely -- the handguns, the semis and the automatics.

              Roger Rosenblatt (Time Magazine columnist), Get Rid of the Damned Things, Time, Aug. 9, 1999, at 38 (boldface added).

              Time national correspondent Jack E. White one-upped Mr.  Thomas:  "Whatever is being proposed is way too namby-pamby.  I mean, for example, we're talking about limiting people to one gun purchase or handgun purchase a month.  Why not just ban the ownership of handguns when nobody needs one?  Why not just ban semi-automatic rifles?  Nobody needs one."

              L. Brent Bozell III, Lock-and-Load Mode Against the 2nd, Washington Times, May 8, 1999, at A12.

              Investigate the NRA with renewed vigor.  It may be on the run, but its spokesman claims membership ($25 annual dues) is up 600,000 over 10 years ago.  Print names of elected officials who take NRA funds.  Interview them.  Support all forms of gun licensing; in fact, all the causes NRA opposes.

              Thomas Winship (former editor of the Boston Globe), Step Up the War Against Guns, Editor & Publisher Magazine, April 24, 1993, at 24.  

              The [American Academy of Pediatrics] believes handguns, deadly air guns and assault weapons should be banned.

              American Assocation of Pediatrics, Where We Stand, available at http://www.aap.org/advocacy/wwestand.htm (visited Jan. 21, 1999) (boldface added).

              A gun-control movement worthy of the name would insist that President Clinton move beyond his proposals for controls -- such as expanding background checks at gun shows and stopping the import of high-capacity magazines -- and immediately call on Congress to pass far-reaching industry regulation like the Firearms Safety and Consumer Protection Act introduced by Senator Robert Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey, and Representative Patrick Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island.  Their measure would give the Treasury Department health and safety authority over the gun industry, and any rational regulator with that authority would ban handguns.

              Josh Sugarmann (executive director of the Violence Policy Center, Dispense With the Half Steps and Ban Killing Machines, Houston Chronicle, Nov. 5, 1999, at 45 (boldface added).

              We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily -- given the political realities -- going to be very modest. . . .  [W]e'll have to start working again to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen the next law, and maybe again and again.  Right now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice.  Our ultimate goal -- total control of handguns in the United States -- is going to take time. . . .  The first problem is to slow down the number of handguns being produced and sold in this country.  The second problem is to get handguns registered.  The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition-except for the military, police, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors-totally illegal.

              Richard Harris, A Reporter at Large: Handguns,  New Yorker, July 26, 1976, at 53, 58 (quoting Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc.) (boldface added, italics in original).

              We will never fully solve our nation's horrific problem of gun violence unless we ban the manufacture and sale of handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons.

              Jeff Muchnick, Legislative Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Better Yet, Ban All Handguns, USA Today, Dec. 29, 1993, at 11A (boldface added).

              The best way to prevent gun violence is to ban handguns.

              Michael K. Beard, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Letters to the Editor, Wall. St. J., July 23, 1997, at A19 (boldface added).

              The goal of CSGV is the orderly elimination of the private sale of handguns and assault weapons in the United States.

              Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, http://www.csgv.org/content/coalition/coal_intro.html (visited June 20, 2000) (boldface added) ("The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is composed of 44 civic, professional and religious organizations and 120,000 individual members that advocate for a ban on the sale and possession of handguns and assault weapons.").

              There is little sense in gun registration.  What we need to significantly enhance public safety is domestic disarmament . . . .  Domestic disarmament entails the removal of arms from private hands . . . .  Given the proper political support by the people who oppose the pro-gun lobby, legislation to remove the guns from private hands, acts like the legislation drafted by Senator John Chafee [to ban handguns], can be passed in short order.

              Communitarian Network, The Case for Domestic Disarmament, endorsed by 75 signatories, mostly academics.