what should we do when they come for our guns?

Great Debates
1

This is a thread for gun owners.

Most of us believe that at some time in history in the United States, legal firearm ownership of most guns will be all but banned.
I personally believe that it will [is] happen slowly. In the begining I don’t believe that there will be some big round up involving military or police. I believe that it will happen like it happened in California: legal guns will be made illegal, and we’ll be told to that we have to turn them in.
I believe that a few guns, like single shot shotguns and hunting rifles with a fixed capacity of 3 rounds or less will be permitted, but extremly regulated, registered, taxed, etc. By allowing some firearms, politcos will be avoiding the stigma of a total gun ban. Handguns and any other types of non sporting will have to be turned in.

I honestly don’t believe that in the begining there will be a “round up”, where police go around picking up guns. After all, if you don’t turn in your illegal gun, what good is it? If you get caught using it for self defense, hunting, target shooting,even showing it off, etc, you’ll be criminally charged.
However, I believe that later on when it it realized that many people did not turn in their weapons, there will be a round up. This realization will occure when the criminal element starts to act up against a disarmed populace, only to be shot by folks who just couldn’t part with that AK!
My theory is, the round up will not be by the United Nations, or the military, or anything crazy like that. It will simply be local or state police, using registration and/or gun dealer records, and approaching people who have a record of owning a banned gun, but did not turn it in. I believe that during the round up there will be several amnesty periods. Letters sent out, Ads on tv: “turn in your assualt rifle before this date or go to prison”, etc. Like I said, this isn’t going to be some UN, black hilcopter thing. No tyranny or dictator in charge. Just a federal law that will ban the possesion of all “non sporting” guns. Unlike the 1994 assualt weapon ban, which only banned the further manufacture of assualt weapons, but allowed possesion of those already made, I believe there will one day be a law that requires surrendering of most firearms. Maybe not today, tomorrow, or 20 years from now, but one day in our history.

Now, when they come for your guns, what are you going to do?
More of a debate question: What should we do? Shoot the cop that knocks on the door? Refuse and go to prison?

I personally don’t think revolution will be an option because I believe that such a law will come in slow steps, sort of the boiling frog theory. Also, I believe that such a total ban will come during a time of peace & prosperity. The majority will be fat and happy. How do you motivate a satisfied populace to rebel against a governemt they’re happy under?
So, my fellow law abiding gun owners. What should we do when this happens? We all talk about how it could happen. We all take steps to try and prevent it from happening. Now lets talk about when it {b[does** happen! What are we going to do!

2

I don’t. Not, at least in my lifetime.

3

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by andros *
**

Uh, okay. Are you a gun owner? Also, notice I didn’t give a time period when I believe this could happen. It could be 300 years from now, though I doubt it will take that long.

But are you a gun owner?

4

One way to avoid this is to (I think) buy guns from indivduals,not from a gun shop. No fuss, no muss and no records to trace. Pay cash, hide the guns. There are always people lookig to sell their guns at the end of hunting season, and what are they going to do if you offer cash? Call teh local police and say, “Hey, I just sold Joe Blow a gun, he lives at 123 Main St”?

5

Death by a thousand cuts would seem the way to go.

Since the only way to outlaw guns entirely would seem to be an amendment to the constitution (Unlikely) there will continue to be more and more local legislation on top of the 20,000 some gun laws already on the books.

I’m sure there are places, D.C. for example, that don’t even allow guns in the home, or perhaps only unloaded, locked, and ammunition kept separately. Essentially useless. I’m not sure how that jibes with the 2nd Amendment, but there it is.

6

Hey, why not come flat out and say it? The best way to keep the firearms will be to erroneously report our firearms as stolen before they are taken away.

It’s a viable solution which serves a dual purpose. First, it keeps the weapons in our hands, legally or not. Second, it fulfils the prophecy that the decline in gun ownership will lead to increased burglary rates because criminals are less inhibited about invading the home.

7

Very few of the gun laws on the books “jibe” with the Second Amendment. Remember, many of the powers that be don’t believe the 2nd protects individual firearm ownership.
Unless the law firm of Bork,Buchannan,Browne,& Bietz get on the Supreme Court and interpret it like it should be, the 2nd does not, and will not prevent any gun bans. Let’s not turn my OP into “that will never happen”, because I know personally several people who live in California who are getting screwed out of some rifles they had purchased and possesed legally!

8

I plan on having a big ol’ copy of the Constitution handy to wave in their face. Not because I think they’ll pay attention to it (if it gets that bad, we might as well start calling the President “Emperor”), but because that will be my signal for my heavily-armed rebel comrades to open fire.

And when we kill the first squad, that’s another cache of weapons to add to the Resistance’s arsenal…

(Note: Take this post seriously at your own risk)

9

As in most things, the ‘good guys’ will get hosed.

It might be nice to have a couple weapons buried safely in the back yard, but what good will come of them? The first time they are used in a municipality or state that has virtually prohibited their use (A de facto confiscation) questions will be asked, fines will be imposed, and property will be confiscated.

Yes, similar to the “war” on illegal drugs, any posession of a firearm will be a big honking Green Light to confiscate a home, cabin, automobile, land, or anything else deemed interesting to have by the confiscatory agency. It just won’t be worth it to maintain an all but illegal item for fear of the consequences.

10

Er, yes. That’s why I responded.

And I understand that you kept the timeframe open-ended. But 300 years from now is not at all worth worrying about to me.

11

would be to first take away the right to vote. Otherwise
we just have congress repeal the gun ban.

do you honestly think this will happen?

12

I agree. Let me add to my OP by saying that I believe that in the future, gun owners…law abiding citizens in legal posession of firearms,…will be viewed upon by the masses in the same way smokers are being viewed today. Smoking is a legal activity, tobacco being the backbone of our countrys origin, and at one time close to a majority of the populace smoked. Today smokers, though law abiding citizens in possesion of a legal substance, are looked down upon, and treated like dirt. Even blamed for some of the problems of our society.

I believe that this same type of attitude change of society will happen to gun owners, which is how draconian gun laws will slowly be enacted: With the approval of the majority.

13

Almost every gun owner I know plans to at least shoot anyone who busts down their door, but lets face it: the majority of those who do will die there and their guns will indeed be taken from their cold dead hands.

Thus we definately ought to hide/bury any guns that are not going to be used for immediate resistance. I mean, I personally can’t shoot several guns at once! So, we had all better decide which one(s) are going to be our personal SHTF weapons, and cache the rest (along with plenty of ammo). If there’s anyone you trust, you should tell them where the cache is, so that when you are killed the guns won’t go to waste.

On the other hand, if you mostly own guns that were not purchased through a dealer, you could hide those and hand in the ones that were. Then you can pick your own time and place to start ‘feeding the hogs’.

I wouldn’t rule out the revolution. If you do successfully resist arrest, you might as well go for it. You can’t exactly step around the bodies the next morning on your way to work, now can you? As the saying goes, after the first one, the rest are free.

And given that that first encounter will probably be the most dangerous one (since the govt. will have the element of surprise), you might as well skip it and get on with the war.

BTW, those of us who plan on resisting should train in and around vehicles as well as at home. Even now, the police don’t need an excuse to search your vehicle (well, legally they do, but they don’t let that stop them).

14

Does this collective fantasy of standing tall against the (non-existent) evil opressor make you happy? Does it fill some need in your life that you can’t satify any other way?

Doesn’t it scare you even a little that it was this same fantasy of guys in black helicopters coming to take your guns away is what motivated McVeigh?

15

The United States will not declare martial law and post documents declaring that guns are now verboten. The long history of firearms confiscation in the totalitarian regimes in the last century gives plenty of “how to” on the matter.

It will be a gradual, incremental erosion of civil liberties (like right now) that in of themselves aren’t terribly disturbing. Rest assured no government is going to tolerate an armed citizenry for long. Remember, this is a country that puts warnings on Superman costumes; Caution: Cape does not enable user to fly.

This is a country where people are unable to listen to the radio and drive at the same time without causing a pile-up on I-5.

There will simply be no place to use them, store them, and will be too expensive to maintain, and legally impossible to deploy in the defense of family, home, or property.

16

Here’s a radical idea:

Get off your asses and make sure it never happens.

Register to vote.

Convince “Casual Gun Owners” to do the same. You know who I’m talking about. It’s your neighbor who has a rusty old .30-'06 and uses WWII surplus ammo for deer hunting. He thinks that no one will will ever outlaw his gun.

Newsflash: the current administration likes guns. Hop on this big wave and make it bigger. Vote against anyone or anything remotely anti-gun.

Do not patronize anti-gun businesses. Hallmark donates money to anti-gun causes. Lowe’s Home Improvement stores recently had to modify their website. It contained a “FAQ” page for homeowners. One part was gun safety. they advised us to get that gun out of the house. After a massive e-mail and phone call campaign by gun owners, they changed it AND APOLOGIZED.

Do not watch movies or buy music from anti-gun celebrities. Spike Lee says “The NRA has got to go”. Sting wants you to to “Set your imagination free. Imagine a world without guns.”

I say again: Get off your ass.

1kBR Kid out.

17

You need to be specific as to whom you are responding to, Tejota. If you’re talking to me, you should have noticed that my OP specifically stated that there were no black helicopters or dictator. Simply a ban on non-sporting firearms (which is just about any gun that holds more than 3 rounds of ammo).

Listen folks, all my OP does is expand the situation in California and make it a federal law instead of a state law. In California assualt weapons were banned. Law abiding people were allowed to register them and keep them. Then, all of a sudden, those that registered their weapons were told that they were now illegal too, and had to be turned in. This is a very simple version of the story, I’m sure someone will post sites as to the facts. But I know some people out there who got a letter telling them that the rifle they own was now illegal. They’re faced with turning it in, moving to another state, or keeping it and being criminals if found with it. This situation can happen on a national level.

18

1kBR Kid. I hate to tell you this, but Bush is not the pro-gun friend you think he is. He will not overturn the assualt weapon (i.e. simple hunting rifles that look evil to liberals) when the sunset clause comes up in a few years, he favors the ban on ammo mags over 10 rounds, he favors banning importation of foreign “assualt” rifles and magazines, and he favors raising the age to simply posses firearms. I read these facts in documentation his own people gave me at a rally last October. Yes, he is far less dangerous to gun owners that Clinton or Algore, but he’s no Harry Browne.

19

pkbites-
I know. But compared to the last administration, I love these guys. With some activism, a lot of things can be accomplished.

20

1kBR kid, I certainly haven’t given up, but still one has to plan for the worst case.

I agree that it wouldn’t not happen overnight, and they can’t raid everyone simultaneously. There would be a time when guns are like drugs, that is, you would only be prosecuted if you got caught with them in public or there was probable cause to search your home. There would be more and more excuses for searching though. People would be encouraged to turn their neighbors in, dogs could sniff cars for gunpowder, and so on.

There is a group in California, whose leader I know online, who are preparing to help defend any Californians who haven’t turned in their “assault weapons”. We’ll see how that goes long before anything happens on a national level.