Gun confiscation and such...
<JohnKSa>
<All they have to do is make them illegal and wait. Over time, they'll chip away at the folks who don't turn them in or register their guns. A little at a time, one here, one there, so there's no obvious point at which those who are non-compliant feel like their collective backs are up against the wall and might be spurred to organized resistance.>
There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 310 million civilian owned guns in the United States. Even if, each year, the Government had a total of 1 million guns confiscated, turned in, etc, that’s roughly 3 centuries to complete civilian gun elimination; and that assumes, among other things, the government consistently maintained the policy of civilian gun elimination for 300 years and there was a zero increase in the supply of civilian owned guns over that period of time.
<They have all the time in the world. Why bother risking lives and resistance by doing a door-to-door? Waiting works just as well if you're not impatient.
They will eventually get them all and with very minor effort.>
Generally speaking, politicians seem to think extremely short term. From what I’ve seen they usually think of the moment or to the next reelection. I’d say the odds are pretty good most politicians wouldn’t be in the mood to wait for a period far past their lifetime to try and reap some political benefit.
Aggressive gun confiscation, like door to door searches, besides consuming a lot of resources, would risk armed resistance. And the government using force against this resistance would likely lead to more of it. And although not in the same category and I do not advocate the use of drugs, did the war on drugs, for example, ever make this country virtually or even mostly drug free?
<In the meantime, those non-compliant folks who wouldn't give them up won't be able to rationalize any advantage in keeping their guns. What's the point of having a gun you can't use in self-defense or to hunt, or even to shoot? The only option would be to hide it away and never use it again on penalty of getting caught committing a felony. They might as well have turned them in before the grace period expired and taken the pittance offered for all their non-compliance gained them.>
I’m sure there are large numbers of people who would like to keep their now illegal firearms because they are heirlooms, have sentimental value, etc while some others because it is their Second Amendment Right or just because it is their property. And I’m sure the vast majority of gun owners would still use their now illegal gun to preserve their own life and/or the life of a loved one regardless of the current laws.