Oh, and regarding the bit about the Cheka and the gulags, remember the Solzhenitsyn quote about “how we burned in the camps later”. The Russian people didn’t have guns, but they all knew about the neighbor who was visited by the Cheka. If every gun owner knows that the confiscation still happens, but happens as a consequence of encountering LEO in some other context, gun owners will begin to treat LEO as the enemy, and will act accordingly. How long will it take before the police no longer want to respond to crime due to being afraid of running up against a gun owner? How long will the public stand for a police force that won’t act thanks to the new gun law? And how long will it take before the right-leaning but non-gun public gets tired of facing escalating crime now that the criminals know they won’t be opposed? The leftist public might not connect the dots, but the right will.
The worst thing they can do is the frog in the pot approach.
Pass the law then not enforce it for awhile.
Then start picking people of calling them dangerous and mentally ill.
Soon one has friends and neighbors turning gun owners in and in time owning a firearm is socially unacceptable
Agents of the Cheka and Gestapo never had to worry about their identities, home addresses, family member names & where they go to school, being uploaded on Google Earth & the internet.
Now...the recent explosion in GVRO/ERPO legislation in liberal states WILL result in horrible abuse where anyone with a grudge automatically becomes a police informant with the power to ruin lives. But they have home addresses, too.
Climate of fear, distrust, & thirst for revenge may soon be upon us. But we’re supposed to turn in our guns.