Instead of emotionally, let’s approach this from from a position of realism and practicality.
First of all, who are “they?”
“They”, under current circumstances, would be federal law enforcement officers (LEOs) and non-LEO bureaucrats who have recently been authorized to be armed and carry out SWAT operations against those that violate their agencies regulations, as well as military personnel. And importantly, private corporations working as government contractors, but with the force of law behind them.
The reliability of all of “them” is questionable, and it would profit us all to find out exactly *how* reliable they are, and how many would refuse to carry out a “legal”, but unconstitutional, gun confiscation. At the federal level, and assuming cooperation from some state and local authorities as well.
The second question, and an important one, is “How?”
Not the only example of a national police-state scheme, but the best one in US history, is that of the authoritarian New Deal agency, the the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. It only lasted 3 years before being declared unconstitutional, but in that time terrorized and impoverished tens of thousands of farm families.
“The AAA attempted to boost the wholesale price of agricultural produce through an artificial scarcity initiative, whereby crops were plowed up or left to rot, and six million pigs were killed and discarded.”
Because of the public outcry, the government then used the artificially created shortages to reward Democrat party allies, by giving them food to distribute and coal for fuel. This was done by a different organization, the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, run by the same people who had run the AAA. For the Republicans, nothing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Surplus_Relief_Corporation
Importantly, while this was, in effect, a government agency, it was not set up as a purely socialist government agency, as was done in Stalin’s Soviet Union, which had proved disastrous; but instead used the fascist economics model of a “public-private partnership” to achieve the same ends.
That is, in PPPs, the government typically directs a corporation to do some government scheme, but then lets the corporation actually execute the government’s plan. This allows the government to get the full impact of its scheme, without taking the responsibility for it.
Importantly, government partnerships are uniquely dangerous to gun owners, *precisely* because the corporation is directly paid via contract, with taxpayer money. So there are no market forces involved, and such corporations can be told *who* to hire.
The government can order them to hire convicted violent federal felons, on “work release” from prison, and it can issue work permits to foreigners (mercenaries), to work for these corporations as well.
Possibly. Theoretically. However, improbably, it is still good to imagine the possibilities, and how to counter them. Because, as Napoleon observed, a static defense is slow suicide.
So imagine what they might do, based on what they did before, and keep your eyes peeled for what they might try next.
“The government can order them to hire convicted violent federal felons, on “work release” from prison, and it can issue work permits to foreigners (mercenaries), to work for these corporations as well.”
“The government can order them to hire convicted violent federal felons, on “work release” from prison, and it can issue work permits to foreigners (mercenaries), to work for these corporations as well.”