Introductory Proviso: The following essay on possible gun confiscation is a purely conjectural gedankenexperiment about the future that extrapolates from recent history and current trends. Nothing herein is seditious (per 18 U.S. Code § 2384), nor a call to arms, nor a threat to our government or to any individual, agency, or group.
THE COLLECTIVIST DREAM
The current mass media-driven “debate” on firearms (actually more like paternalistic lecturing or chiding) seems to be leading toward greater restrictions by Congress. The collectivist gun grabbers have the dream of ignoring the Second Amendment and somehow magically removing all detachable magazine semi-auto rifles from civilian hands. But it is just that: a dream. If they think that they can disarm us, then they are thoroughly deluded. I’ll explain why, with some simple mathematics.
The United States has the world’s first or second most heavily-armed populace, per capita. (It’s possibly second only to Yemen.) The number of FBI firearms background checks for transfers by Federally-licensed dealers from November 1998 to April 30, 2018 totaled 287,807,015. That isn’t all new guns. It of course includes many second-hand sales that cycled back through FFL holders. But it is still a staggering number. And it does not include any private party (“not through a dealer”) sales of used guns. That is thankfully legal in most states. Nor does it include guns that are legally made at home. (Typically made with 80% complete receivers.) Those home “builds” are becoming quite popular. Their ownership is mostly opaque to any would-be tyrants who might covet seizing them.
There are somewhere between 370 million and 420 million privately-owned firearms in the United States. Let’s just call it 400 million for a nice round figure. Most of those guns are not registered to particular owners. That is why there are only rough estimates. It makes me feel good to know that Big Brother has no idea where those guns are, and who owns them. When I last checked, the total U.S. population is 327,708,500. So that is about 1.2 guns per person. The adult population is around 249,500,000. And according to Wikipedia, the “Fit for service” Military Age Male population (men, ages 16-49) of the U.S. is just 59,764,677. That equates to 6.6 guns per Military Age Male in the United States.
Of the 400 million American guns, roughly 20% are single-shot or double-barreled, 60% are manually-operated repeaters (e.g., bolt action, lever action, pump action, or revolvers), and 20% are semi-automatic. There are only about 175,000 transferable Federally-registered full autos. That number would have been much larger by now but production was sharply curtailed by a hefty $200 tax (starting in 1934) and then there numbers were effectively frozen in 1986. It is noteworthy that if it were not for the National Firearms Act of 1934, selective fire guns would by now be in what the Heller decision calls “common use“. After all, it costs only a few dollars more to manufacture a selective-fire M16 than a semiautomatic-only AR-15.
With every passing year, the predominance of semi-autos is gaining for both rifles and handguns. (In sheer numbers produced, revolvers are becoming almost passé.) The biggest-selling handgun in the country is the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm, followed closely by the Glock Model 19 9mm. Gaining rapidly is the highly modular SIG P320, which was recently adopted by the U.S. Army. All three of these are semi-automatic. Standard magazine sizes for autopistols range from 13 to 20 rounds. And the most popular rifles of the decade are AR-15s and their clones. Their standard capacity magazines hold 30 cartridges. (That isn’t “high capacity”.)
THE MATH ON AR CLONES
AR-15 and AR-10 variants are truly generic and have been sold under more than 120 brand names. The number of ARs (AR-15s, M4s, AR-10s, and variants) sold from 2000 to 2014 was approximately 5,672,900. Since then, AR-15 clones have become even more popular and ubiquitous with approximately 1.2 million more produced in 2015, 1.6 million in 2016, and 1.5 million in 2017. At least 1.2 million will be produced in 2018. It can be assumed that 99% of the ARs produced since the year 2000 are still functional. There were more than 2.3 million other ARs produced for the civilian market between 1962 and 1999. It is safe to assume that at least 95% of those of that vintage are still functional. So the total number of functional ARs in private hands in the U.S. is somewhere around 11 to 12 million. (As of May, 2018.)
SOME MATH ON OTHER SEMI-AUTOS
Next we come to the more fuzzy math on the wide variety of other models of semi-auto centerfire rifles in private hands. They include detachable magazine, en bloc clip, and stripper clip-fed designs. Here are some rough estimates. (Some of these estimates are based on my own observations of the ratios of different models I’ve seen offered for sale):
- Various semi-auto hunting rifles (Remington 740/7400 series, AK Hunter, Browning BAR, Winchester 100, Valmet Hunter, Saiga Hunter, HK SL7/SL8, HK 630/770, et cetera): 2 million+
- Ruger Mini-14 and Mini-30: 1.2 million
- M1 Garand: 800,000+ (With many more being imported, soon.)
- AK Variants (imported and domestically made, from all makers including Valmet and Galil): 2 to 3 million
- M1 Carbine: 1.5 to 2 million
- AR-180 and AR-180B: 35,000
- M1A and other semi-auto M14 variants: 360,000
- SIG 550 series: 80,000+
- Thompson Semi-Autos (West Hurley and Kahr Arms): 75,000
- HK variants: CETME, HK91/93/94 series, PTR91, etc.: 600,000 to 700,000
- FAL variants: FN-FAL, FNC, and L1A1: 425,000
- SKS variants: 1 million
- Steyr AUG: 110,000
- IWI Tavor & X95: 70,000
- Various semi-autos assembled from military surplus full auto parts sets (M1919, BAR, Sten, M2 Browning, M3, Etc.): 75,000+
- Assorted Other Models (These include: Kel-Tec, Barrett, Leader, FAMAS, Uzi carbines, Wilkinson, Feather, Calico, Hi-Point, SIG AMT, SIG PE57, SIG MCX, SIG MPX, Johnson, BM59, HK USC, TNW, Demro Tac-1, Calico Carbine, ACR, SCAR, Chiappa Carbine, SWD (MAC), Robinson, Hakim, Ljungman, Beretta AR-70, Beretta CX4, CZ Scorpion, Kriss Carbine, FN-49, SVT-40, SVD, PSL, Gewehr 41 & 43, Daewoo, FS 2000, Ruger PCR, Marlin Camp Carbine, et cetera): 2+ million.
THE AGGREGATE GUN MATH
If a production and importation ban requiring registration were enacted, there would surely be massive noncompliance. For example, the registration schemes enacted in the past two decades in Australia, Canada, The Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, and the States of California and New York have been well-documented failures. They have been met with noncompliance rates ranging from 50% to 90%.
Let us surmise that following several years of a registration scheme there were an outright “turn them all in, Mr. and Mrs. America” ban. I predict that even if $1,000 per gun were offered, no more than 11 million would be turned in, by compliant and history-ignorant Sheeple. (An aside: They’ll probably call this a “Buy Back”, but that will be a lie. They can’t “buy back” something that they’ve never owned.)
THE SWAT AND ATF MANPOWER MATH
So let’s suppose that a full Federal semi-auto rifle ban were enacted with a gun confiscation order issued.
This is where the math gets very interesting: There are only 902,000 sworn police officers in the United States. At most, about 80,000 of them have had SWAT training. There are only 5,113 BATFE employees–and many of those are mere paper shufflers. As of 2017, there were just 2,623 ATF Special Agents. The FBI’s notorious Hostage Rescue Team (HRT or “Hurt Team”) has a cadre strength that is classified but presumably less than 200 agents. Together, they comprise the pool of “Door Kickers” that might be available to execute unconstitutional search warrants.
If they were to start going door-to-door executing warrants for unconstitutional gun confiscation, what would the casualty rates be for the ATF, HRT, and the assorted local SWAT teams? It bears mention that the military would be mostly out of the picture, since they are banned from domestic law enforcement roles, under the Posse Comitatus Act.
THE DIVISION EQUATIONS
Next, let’s do some addition and then divide:
80,000 SWAT-trained police
+ 2,623 ATF Special Agents
+ 200 FBI HRT Members
= 82,863 Potentially Available Door Kickers
… presumably working in teams of 8, attempting to seize 9,000,000 newly-contraband semi-auto rifles.
Before we finish the math, I’ll state some “for the sake of argument” assumptions:
- That every SWAT-trained officer in the country is pressed into service.
- That there would be no “false positives”–meaning that 100% of the tips leading to raids were accurate. (Unlikely)
- That no local police departments would opt out of serving unconstitutional Federal gun warrants. (Unlikely)
- That all raids would be successful. (Unlikely)
- That each successful raid would net an average of three contraband semi-auto rifles. (Possible)
- That every Door Kicker would get an equal share in the work. (Very unlikely)
- That every Door Kicker would be alive and well through the entire campaign of terror–with no incapacitating injuries or deaths of SWAT officers, no refusals, no resignations, and no early retirements. (Very unlikely)
A lot of those are not safe assumptions. But for the sake of completing a gedankenexperiment, let’s pen this out on the back of a napkin, as a “best case” for an unconstitutional gun confiscation campaign. Here are the division equations:
9,000,000 ÷ 82,863 = 108 (x 8 officers per team) = 864 raids, per officer
Let that sink in: Every officer would have to survive 864 gun-grabbing raids.
Those of course are fanciful numbers. There will be a lot of false tips, and there will be many owners who keep their guns very well-hidden. Each of those raids would have nearly the same high level of risk but yet many of them would net zero guns. And it is likely that many police departments will wisely decline involvement. Therefore the “best case” figure of 864 raids per officer is quite low. The real number would be much higher.
Here is some sobering ground truth: America’s gun owners are just as well trained–and often better trained–than the police. There are 20.4 million American military veterans, and the majority of veterans own guns.
RESISTANCE STRATEGY AND TACTICS
THE GUN CONFISCATION END GAME
- Declare a cease fire and stand-down for all gun confiscation raiders.
- Repeal all Federal gun laws.
- Order the destruction of all Federal import, purchase, transfer, and registration records
- Issue unconditional pardons for all convicted Federal gun law violators.
- Declare a general amnesty for all involved in the resistance, and drop all pending charges.
- Disband the BATFE.
Without all six of those, the hostilities would continue.
BUT THERE’S MORE
Then there are the estimated 1.5 million unregistered machineguns now in the country. Except for a 30-day amnesty in 1968 that generated only about 65,000 registrations, they have been contraband since 1934. Their number is particularly difficult to accurately estimate, since some semi-autos such as the M1 Carbine, HK91/93/94 series, and AR-15 are fairly easy to convert to selective fire. Similarly, nearly all “open bolt” semi-auto designs are easy to convert to full auto. Large numbers of conversion parts sets have been sold, with little recordkeeping. Some guns can be converted simply by removing sear springs or filing their sears. Just a trickle of unregistered full autos are seized or surrendered each year. This begs the question: If Federal officials have been unable to round up un-papered machineguns after 84 years, then how do they expect to ever confiscate semi-autos, which are 15 times more commonplace?
As evidenced by the 1990s wars in the Balkans, when times get inimical, contraband guns get pulled out of walls and put into use. We can expect to see the same, here.
Now, to get back to the simple mathematics, here are some ratios to ponder:
- NRA members (5.2 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 63-to-1 ratio
- Military veterans (20.4 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 249-to-1 ratio
- Unregistered machineguns (1.5 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 18-to-1 ratio
- Privately owned semi-auto rifles (40 million) to Door Kickers (82,863) = 485-to-1 ratio
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
I’ll conclude with a word of caution: Leftist American politicians should be careful about what they wish for. Those who hate the 2nd Amendment and scheme to disarm us have no clue about the unintended consequences of their plans. If they proceed, then I can foresee that it will end very badly for them. – JWR
End Notes:
Again, the preceding is a purely conjectural gedankenexperiment about the future that extrapolates from recent history and current trends. None of the foregoing is seditious (per 18 U.S. Code § 2384), nor a call to arms, nor a threat to our government or to any individual, agency, or group.
Permission to reprint, re-post or forward this article in full is granted, but only if credit is given to James Wesley, Rawles and first publication in SurvivalBlog (with a link.) It must not be edited or excerpted, and all included links must be left intact.
Even though I admittedly suck at math this is plainly obvious that someone's is going to get their asses kicked biblically.
ReplyDeleteI would not be surprised that IF a conflict ensued, the left/socialists would call for help from their U N scum buddies to save their scared little butts.
Deleteno
DeleteWell then, target-rich environment!
DeleteIf you haven't read the book unintended consequences I highly recommend it. Good writing, good and entertaining story.
ReplyDeletehttps://nationalvanguard.org/2019/09/the-myth-of-gun-control-under-hitler/
ReplyDeleteThe Myth of Gun Control Under Hitler
...
German firearms legislation under Hitler, far from banning private ownership, actually facilitated the keeping and bearing of arms by German citizens by eliminating or ameliorating restrictive laws which had been enacted by the government preceding his: a left-center government which had contained a number of Jews.
I would not say it is a myth. There was gun control during the Hitler regime. Without going into a lot of detail I will say it like this: In the early days of national socialism, German citizens could possess firearms with a permit. The key phrase is German citizens. Most people who were persecuted by the nahtsees fell into groups who were not permitted to own firearms. It would be like Joe Biden supporters being allowed to possess firearms, but those who voted for Trump, or were White, Christian, rightwing leaning, or anti-Biden/Commiecrat, etc., people would not be allowed to own firearms.
DeleteIt is my contention, knowing many Police Officers, Sheriff Deputies, Federal L.E., and hundreds of thousand of veterans, that upon an order of confiscation, the people issuing those orders would be quickly "cuffed and stuffed" by the very people they thought were going to do their dirty-work for them. Politicians may take their oath lightly, but warriors do not.
ReplyDeleteI find that most interesting. Personally I suspect something similar, but there are some hard core types that would follow orders. Pity. Tks
DeleteI find that most interesting. Personally I suspect something similar, but there are some hard core types that would follow orders. Pity. Tks
DeleteGreat article, Jeffery. The gun grabbers will not give up after a few of their door kickers are removed from the gene pool. They will revert to their friends in tech, banking and business to cancel you financially. Suppose they go through all of the 4473's filed the past 10 years and give you a date certain to present the weapon purchased at the local court house. If you do not comply, your bank accounts and credit cards are seized until you comply. They know they cannot win a shooting war and will rely on financial terroristic attacks on the non-compliant.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think it might be time to hide your firearms from the government, it might really be time to use them.
This report has been around since the days of Obuttface, not just since the 2018 date of the article at Survival Blog. I did this same math calc on the back of a napkin during Obuttface's term when he called for confiscation after Sandy Hook with crocodile tears in his eyes.
ReplyDeleteOne of the "assumptions" in this piece, that federal troops will not be employed because of "posse commitatas" is, I believe patently false. Given the recent reports of "loyalty testing" and flat out asking troops if they would fire on American citizens if so ordered, I'd say that this is just what they're planning.
They know they don't have the numbers of regular law enforcement to implement a confiscation plan of any real meaning. The only way that they're going to be able to get any kind of real compliance is via threat of armed troop assaults on non-compliers. 'Course when the plan for armed troop confiscations become public knowledge, and it will, almost from inception, there's going to a be whole lot of elected representatives shittin' their drawers. What'll happen next with make Jan6th, 2021 look like a church picnic.
One thing that they're misleading themselves about is that troopers aren't stupid. The troops know why they're being asked these questions and they're lying to preserve their paycheck. If it ever comes to being ordered to take part in gun confiscations, I believe there will be a massive amount of officers suddenly turning up dead, especially at the O-5/O-6 and above levels.
...and for all of you three letter agency folks reading this, the above is not a threat. It's just spitballin' the what ifs.
Nemo
A bit dated, and besides that, around the same time a blogger called Hognose (who passed away way too early) had done some research saying that the total number of guns in the US is about twice this guy's assumption of 400 million. We can't just double his numbers because we don't know what kind of guns they are, but they add up.
ReplyDeleteI've said before that the first guys who get the midnight raids to confiscate their guns will probably die. After that, though, once the word gets out, it will turn into a level of ugliness and payback the world has never known. The guys doing the confiscating will come home to their families slaughtered. Same for the guys giving the orders. If (when) they go to the financial stuff, same thing for the tech leaders and those running that.
There are those that think of the attempts to register all the AR-15s in NY and CT and say nobody will play. Just remember, unenforced laws are unenforced until they're enforced. Usually at 3AM with a door-busting raid. When the laws are passed, the scene is set for the first raids, which lead to what I just said.
What SiG said.
DeleteHognose had already given a far more accurate lower-end number of >600M firearms in circulation before the time that was written, and between the conservative upper number then, and events since that time, a current figure of 1 Billion privately held weapons, and 1000-20,000 times that in rounds of ammunition for those weapons, is well within a reasonable estimate.
For the "they'll just freeze your bank account" crowd:
That's called throwing gasoline on the fire.
Anyone at a bank will be shot on sight, from tellers to CEOs.
As Janis Joplin told you: "Freedom's just another word for "nothin' left to lose"..."
Freeze assets?
Blood bath, coast-to-coast, same day.
We're talking someone firing the starter's pistol on the last three minutes of Fight Club, at that point. There aren't enough troops and police in the entire world to stop that, once it gets rolling. Every government employee from bottom to top would be hunted down and shot on sight, for pure sport, right afterwards, and the cheering would go on for weeks after the last one was rooted out.
Interesting side note, no revolution including our own has ever ended up where they originally started. CM Dutch
ReplyDeleteIf Jim Rawle's survivalblog.com isn't at least a weekly read, it should be. Ohio Guy
ReplyDeleteI don't think (I hope not) this is going to happen here (if we're watchful)
ReplyDelete"FIRST THEY CAME
By Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me."
Solidarity with no cause, based on fear is useless, I'm sorry for the sort of such not-really-poetry is always quoted.
DeleteIs confusing weak minds.
Ghess who benefits!
Let's not forget that raiding rural places poses problems Swat is not trained for. Cattle, Geese, large dogs (LGD), horses and everything else that comes with rural life. Hard to sneek in when all critters raise the alarm and landowners are used to dealing with bears, coyotes, hogs or worse. After the first raid my bull will be in the front yard, good luck getting past him with out shooting --- at night.
ReplyDeletethis is why the .mil is being converted,
ReplyDeleteexactly. The "loyalty tests" that have recently been reported in the conservative press aren't just for the protection of the DC elite or the result of the incident at the Capital on 06-JAN. The Biden admin. is preparing for the employment of Army and Marine units to effect their confiscation EO which will be coming out shortly.
DeleteBut, but, but "posse comitatus" prohibits U.S. ground forces being used against the citizens. Since when has the U.S. government NOT ignored whatever law they chose to when convenient?
Nemo
Oooh! They could bring in the UN, too, but China's People's Liberation Army is more likely.
DeleteAnother reason to read Unintended Consequences.
The estimate of the number of ARs in the US is way, way underestimated. Check out: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/31/hawkins-last-night-we-saw-why-americans-own-16-million-ar-15s/
ReplyDeleteAlso remember that this breitbart figure was arrived at prior to the stampede for guns, in general, when COVID struck and George Floyd made his exit.
Have you seen what used copies of "Unintended Consequences" are going for these days?
ReplyDeleteCrikey!
"Unintended Consequences" is avalable as a PDF, on line, from a variety of websites. Here's just one of them:
Deletehttps://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/129/Media/Unintended_Consequences.pdf
Nemo
...and just to add insult to injury, the vaunted Ninth Circus of the Federal Appeals Court has ruled that the Second Amendment's "right to keep and bear arms" doesn't mean that a citizen has the right to open carry outside of his or her home.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/judges-erase-bear-arms-from-second-amendment
Nemo
Add to this the 'silent' weapons that are very effective... there are specific hunting seasons in some states for these methods.
ReplyDeletelike mike vanderboegh used to say..
ReplyDelete"Three Percenters today do not claim that we represent 3% of the American people, although we might. That theory has not yet been tested. We DO claim that we represent at least 3% of American gun owners, which is still a healthy number somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million people. History, for good or ill, is made by determined minorities. We are one such minority. So too are the current enemies of the Founders' Republic. What remains, then, is the test of will and skill to determine who shall shape the future of our nation."
3 million. last stats I can find (2018) puts the US military at 1,380,00. now, not all of those are trigger pullers. rough guess is usually about 1/3 so 455,000.
that's roughly 690 to 1.
The math on countering gun grabbing arguments is pointless. MOST of the people who support gun grabbing are INCAPABLE of rational thought. They EMOTE their way through life and are totally immune to facts, logic, math or reason. The handful on the left who DO understand the math simply DON'T CARE. They have an agenda. And that agenda is to disarm us so they can rule us with impunity. The gun grabbing left are communists. Call them what you wish but that is their fundamental political belief system. And communists....like islamists... CANNOT and WILL NOT coexist with anyone who doesn't submit to their ideology. It is US OR THEM. To the death. The problem is THEY understand this is a fight to the death....while the conservative side of America refuses to accept that ugly fact.
ReplyDeleteThat gave me wood. Better than FFF.
ReplyDeleteWhat about ammo? That seems to be the weak point, not enough ammo - what does your math say in this regard?
ReplyDeleteGiven that most gun enthusiasts have thousands of rounds there should be 500 billion to 1 trillion rounds. More than enough.
DeleteI think an equally effective tactic would be to go after the bureaucrats and paper shufflers that support the active agents. If a few of these were targeted and there remains left for public display you would see a lot of the rest of them stay home because quite simply there aren't enough FBI agents to protect them all. No protection they'll stay home and refuse to work. When that happens the rest of the corrupt system grinds to a halt. Just my two cents worth
ReplyDelete