How many Americans own a gun? And how many of those gun owners have either registered themselves or their firearms with the government as mandated by law? Those are two questions that activists and officials are desperately trying to find out in their quest to dissolve gun rights, and some say, expand the already widespread gun confiscations.

Lying to survey takers

The first indication that American gun owners are so terrified of being rounded up or having their firearms confiscated that they’re lying to survey takers is the drastic and inexplicable change in poll numbers over the past few years. Basically, corporate sales records show that gun ownership is at an all-time high in the US. But long-running university and government survey results show the exact opposite – that gun ownership in the US is at an all-time low. How can that be? The answer – 40% of American gun owners just went underground.

“Despite the high number of guns estimated to be in the US, indications are that gun ownership is actually on the decline,” The Blaze reported after interviewing a university GSS survey director, “The long-running General Social Survey, maintained at the University of Chicago, has been asking about gun ownership since its inception in the 1970s. It has found that the number of people who say they have a gun in their home is at an all time low – hovering around 30 percent, from a high of 50 percent in the 1970s.”

In reality, because there are no official databases or lists of gun owners in America, there is no way of knowing for sure how many there really are. Our estimate here at Whiteout Press is that the decades-long survey results are accurate and that 50% of Americans own guns. Massive spikes in gun purchases after President Obama’s elections in 2008 and 2012 may have even elevated that number to 60%. Based on the raw numbers, there are an estimated 270 million firearms in the US, or 85 guns for every 100 citizens.

Connecticut gun registration problems

The latest major indicator and most widely reported example showing gun owners are ignoring recently-enacted laws requiring them to register themselves and/or their firearms comes from Connecticut. BearingArms.com reported last week, ‘Governor Dannel Malloy and the government of the state of Connecticut are having their own “Oh, poop” moment, now that they’ve tallied the number of citizens who have registered their “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines” required by the state’s unconstitutional gun laws, compared that to the estimated number of applicable weapons and magazines in the state, and realized they’ve been ignored.’

The report from the 2nd Amendment advocates quotes the local Connecticut newspaper, the Hartford Courant, describing the state’s predicament, ‘Amid concerns about gun owners who failed in their last-minute attempts to register now-illegal assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, lawmakers are considering granting an amnesty period for people who missed the registration deadline. The comprehensive gun control bill enacted last spring required owners of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to register the guns and declare ownership of the magazine if they wished to keep them.’

BearingArms.com estimates that 9 out of 10 American gun owners have always refused to register their firearms with the government. As this author has been saying for 25 years, “Those are the lists they’re going to work off of when they round you all up.” Apparently, that fear is all but universal among actual gun owners.

‘Historically speaking, 90 percent or more of those required to comply with gun registration laws in the US refuse to do so, and there is no reason to suspect that this registration attempt in Connecticut is any different,’ the site writes, ‘I’ve seen estimates of 1,000,000 firearm magazines that should have been registered under the law, but the state reports registering only 40,000 – just 4 percent.’

DC gun re-registration and freedom tax

It should be no surprise that the nation’s capitol has some of the most far-reaching anti-firearms laws in the country. Washington DC was the second to last major American city to see their total gun ban struck down by the US Supreme Court, with Chicago being the last major metropolis to succumb. Now, DC has enacted a special ‘re-registration fee’ and forced the city’s gun owners to pay a tax for the privilege.

‘For the first time in the United States, a citizen who has legally registered a gun will have to submit to a renewal process. The consequences of not knowing about this new law or missing the specific 60-day window are dire,’ the Washington Times reported earlier this month, ‘If the registrant does not go to the police station within three months after a set time frame, the registration is revoked. That citizen is then in possession of an unregistered firearm, which is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.’

For those who’ve erroneously assured gun owners for decades that door-to-door gun confiscations would never happen in America, the Times reports, ‘The city has not made clear how it will enforce the law, but the police are in possession of all registrants’ home addresses so confiscation and arrests would be simple.’ The publication goes on to detail what it calls the city’s ‘gun tax’, explaining that firearms owners must pay a $13 registration fee, a $13 re-registration fee, plus the $35 cost of electronic fingerprinting for the FBI background check.

New York Gun Confiscations

Last month, Opposition News published an article quoting the American Freedom Party and its warning to supporters and gun owners that, ‘Gun confiscations are here!’ The account explains, ‘A report from TruthAboutGuns.com is claiming that New York gun owners are being sent letters from the NYPD demanding them to surrender their guns which have feeding capacities that violate the 5-round rule.’

The American Freedom Party references an ominous warning from NY Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin in January 2013 when he warned that the new law could lead to door-to-door gun confiscations. The firearm ordinance outlaws any rifles capable of holding more than 5 bullets. That was a strategic number on the part of gun control activists, as almost all firearms hold 6 or more bullets.

Opposition News quotes the official letter sent by the NYPD to the city’s gun owners. Dated November 18, 2013, the notice reads, ‘It appears that you are in possession of a rifle and/or shotgun (listed below) that has an ammunition feeding device capable of holding more than five (5) rounds of ammunition. Rifles and shotguns capable of holding more than five (5) rounds of ammunition are unlawful to possess in New York City, as per NYC Administrative Code 10-306 (b).’

Door-to-door confiscations in California

As detailed in the above-linked article, New York City isn’t the only one confiscating average firearms from average citizens. Funded with $24 million in state funding to forcibly confiscate 40,000 guns from California gun owners, a state law was aimed at taking firearms away from convicted felons who shouldn’t have been in possession of them in the first place. But once the gun confiscations began, they were expanded.

In addition to felons, large numbers of US military veterans were also added to the list of people prohibited from owning a firearm in the State of California. The account explains, ‘With only veterans groups shouting a warning, all of a sudden veterans began finding themselves on the list of people not allowed to own a gun. It wasn’t because they were felons. It was because they were veterans of the Gulf War, Iraq War, Afghan War, or any combination of the three. Any veterans seeing a psychologist or taking medication for depression, PTSD or any other common affliction is legally, emotionally unfit to own firearms.’

One recently retired federal agent who accompanied local police on residential gun raids in California spoke to NRA News, detailing the intimidation and overreach carried out by the government gun raids currently going on. Justice Dept. Special Agent Greg Cameron explained, “Ninety-five to ninety-eight percent of the firearms we confiscated, I really questioned why we were confiscating them. This whole freakin’ APPS thing is not doing anyone any good. This has amounted to nothing less than gun confiscation under the guise of safety.”

He went on to describe a typical government raid on an unsuspecting gun owner. “We would show up with way too many agents for the circumstance, and it didn’t make any sense. There was no need for it,” Cameron explained, “And yeah, the whole place would be surrounded, and absolutely, there’s an intimidation factor there that makes people allow – or think that they need to allow – law enforcement into their house. And if we found out there were guns in the house, then we would confiscate them. I think it is overbroad, overreaching. I think it’s confiscation under the guise of safety. That’s absolutely what I think it is.”

Gun confiscations likely to expand

President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address this week that he fully intends to bypass Congress and the US Constitution to expand the nation’s gun bans, forced registrations and house-to-house firearm confiscations. But with an estimated 70-90 percent of American gun owners fearfully hiding underground, secretly owning an illegal or recently banned gun, the government’s overall agenda is rapidly becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tens of millions of law abiding citizens are now officially classified as dangerous criminals in the eyes of their government.

And if Americans have ever registered a gun before, or themselves as a gun owner, they might want to expect a knock at the door sometime soon. Or more likely, a battering ram followed by the paralyzing detonation of an Army stun grenade. That seems to be how the Obama administration likes to do things. For their part, Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), and the Congressman who walked out of the State of the Union in protest Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), are vowing to fight any unilateral Executive Orders by this President.