VICTOR JOECKS: Democrats think Trump is a tyrant. Also, they want you to give him your guns.

Democrats have spent the past three years arguing that President Donald Trump is a danger to our democracy. On Wednesday, two of the party’s leading presidential candidates came to Las Vegas and demanded that you give him your guns.

Anyone else see the disconnect here?

The leading Democrat presidential candidates were in town this week for a gun policy forum. They all believe the government needs to have more authority in determining who owns what type of weapon.

Sen. Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke had the most extreme proposals. They called for a mandatory buyback program for “assault” rifles. What separates an “assault” rifle from a rifle isn’t clear. That’s important because how scary-looking a rifle is doesn’t make it more or less dangerous.

Leaving aside the constitutionality of banning the most popular rifles in America, there’s a logistical concern. There are between 8 million and 15 million AR-15-style rifles in the country. Millions of gun owners wouldn’t turn over their weapons if the government ordered them to. Ironic how those vocally opposed to mass incarceration want to turn millions of responsible gun-owners into outlaws.

Asked about this difficulty, Booker pretended it wouldn’t be an issue. “There are ways to do this that get you complete compliance,” he said.

No, there aren’t. The most high-profile gun buyback program was Australia’s 1996 gun confiscation effort. Gun grabbers often tout it as a model for America. There’s just one problem. Scholars who’ve studied the effort estimate it removed only 20 percent of the country’s guns. There’s now a thriving black market for guns among criminal biker gangs, too. Imagine that. Making something illegal didn’t stop criminals from obtaining it.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former vice president Joe Biden won’t admit they support gun confiscation. They just want to put the country on that path through licensing schemes. It would be much easier for a future government to seize legally owned firearms if officials knew where they were and who owned them. Criminals, the ones everyone wants to take guns away from, won’t participate. Gun ownership is also a constitutional right. It’s not a right if you have to ask the government for permission to exercise it.

If you don’t think politicians such as Warren will move to gun confiscation, look at her plan. It calls for an 80 percent reduction in gun violence. On Wednesday, she said she’d achieve that in eight years or “two terms.” Her plan acknowledges, however, that “we might not know how to get all the way there yet,” but she will keep “updating those solutions.” In other words, the gun grabbing comes after inconveniencing responsible gun owners doesn’t reduce gun violence.

Democrats have criticized Trump for praising foreign dictators for their brutality in limiting their political opponents.

Trump is wrong to praise tyrants, such as the anniversary “congratulations” he tweeted Tuesday to China’s dictator Xi Jinping. But if he had serious tyrannical ambitions, he’d be supporting the gun control plans proposed by Democrat presidential candidates.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.