Getting Off The Grid

[Scrince]

If you heard on the news that the government was going door to door to take weapons away from citizens what would you do?

A. Stay at home and surrender your firearms
B. Stay at home and fight back
C. Leave and join a group of like minded individuals and create a new society.
D. Other..... ( Please Specify)

Just food for thought... What would you do in this situation ?

[Riyame]

Weapons, I ain't got no weapons. Unless you count that 5 alarm 11 bean chili

[darksim905]

I'd execute Order 66.

[HT4]

Weapons, I ain't got no weapons. Unless you count that 5 alarm 11 bean chili

Let me guess... a tragic boating accident?

[aeporia]

Getting off the grid (OT) and firearm regulation seem oddly related?

Option A: In realistic scenarios wherein (presumably this topic is within a US context?) the US gov’t would want to collect firearms (presuming not all firearms; can’t see how that would ever work given US gun culture and the amendment provisions) it’d likely be a buy-back scheme, with collection facilities, viz., it’d be unlikely that gov’t officials or contractors would venture door-to-door in an effort to collect arms. I could maybe see door-knocks happening for firearms not turned in after the grace period usually given in any buy-back scheme, for arms that are categorised as ‘must be turned in’. I suspect in those instances a physical confrontation with those who refuse to turn in such arms would be the last thing any one implementing a buy-back scheme would want (or your average neighbour), for obvious reasons… not quite sure how something like this might be resolved?

Option B: armed resistance seems like an… ill-conceived idea — from what I understand small arms aren’t much of a match for the various armoured toys the Pentagon is passing off to local US law enforcement under the 1033 program (e.g. MRAPs > small arms fire), not to mention the military has even bigger, shinier things, including airborne things that can lay waste to just about anything an armed civilian group might attempt to put up a stand with.

Option C: er, I guess? Where, how, and what form does this society take would be poignant questions. Unless it means uprooting and exiting the US entirely, this would likely entail a state, or part of a state succeeding from the union? This option, IMHO, seems on a practical level fairly fantastical to me.

Here in Down Under going off the grid is surprisingly easy (leave any of the major metropolitan cities, of which almost all are on the coast, and head inland into the bush and/or desert). Surviving off-the-grid, in any kind of sustainable way (w/o relying on going back on-the-grid) would be the hardest part. I suspect this would be much the same in a US context.

[xeo]

Going "door to door" to confiscate weapons would require an extremely expensive and coordinated nation wide military deployment effort which would likely instantly cause nation wide chaos. The situation just isn't a feasible possibility in my opinion. It would be too expensive, require too many resources, too much time, and it would be far too easy for people to deny owning weapons. They would need search and seizure warrants for every property in the country. Not to mention people would be given ample time to hide their weapons.

What would I do? Nothing. I'm not home. Sorry guys. You can kick in my door if you want and then feel free to scour my home looking for weapons I've cleverly hid in advance.

[aeporia]

Indeed.

What would I do? Nothing. I'm not home. Sorry guys. You can kick in my door if you want and then feel free to scour my home looking for weapons I've cleverly hid in advance.

In the fantastical world where for whatever crazy reason this [door visits] happens, surely locking arms in any decent safe would instantly foil this plan — can’t easily be opened; can’t easily be taken away; could have anything in it (plausible deniability and avoiding self-incrimination; 5th Amendment, IIRC?*), alongside things you have every right to have (e.g. legal docs), in addition to the right to not give up the combination/key (4th Amendment, IIRC?*). I dunno. I’m in agreement that a door-to-door “ohai, we’re the government and we’ve come to get your guns!” scheme would be beyond idiotic (for the US to attempt), and more likely a component of FUD-mongering by the likes of the NRA.

* IANAL, nor a US citizen. >_>

[LocksportSouth]

Slightly off-topic, but going off aeporia's stuff about not having to give up safe combinations - here in the UK you HAVE to surrender any encryption keys when requested by... I assume a court order (which aren't hard for the police to get AFAIK) or face a possible 2 year prison sentence. How crappy is that? So much for a right to privacy against intrusion by the state....

Source

As for the gun stuff, we already can't get firearms here. Our rights and freedom are always being slowly chipped away a little more by the gov't...

[selim]

That sucks man, my state is getting way cool, I can do almost anything that I want to,, -- I've been good for a while --

[Hugo Martel]

I would weld the door of an empty safe.... and look at them strugeling LOL

[DroppedTensionWrench]

It isn't feasible for a large scale firearm confiscation in the United States. There is just too much area to cover and millions of people to disarm. There would be mutiny within our own military for sure. I assume the UN would have to get involved.

Surprisingly (in AZ at least) a large number of people preparing for an event like that. I wouldn't want to be the poor bastard sent to disarm the combat veteran constitutionalist lol. Lots of knowledge in the veteran community on insurgent tactics and IEDs. It's really common to see firepower like Barrett .50 cals here and armor piercing incendiary rounds too.

I assume most would resist. Honestly it wouldn't happen though.

[Scrince]

I don't think they will need to confiscate them... As long as they keep passing restricting laws over the years we won't have guns..... At first you can only have 10 rounds.... then it will be 5 rounds.... then you can only have a single shot weapon.... then they will say something like, you can only use bullets made from material that is environmentally friendly, and keep adding on and so forth, if you make the guns so complicated to follow the rules then no one will be able to own them.

[LocksportSouth]

BigDipper - exactly. That's how the gov't likes to do things - piecemeal, bit at a time, innocent-looking legislature with the power to manipulate and push it further should they need to. The current gov't here in the UK wants to get rid of the NHS, and more over to private healthcare, but they wouldn't dare brazenly do something like that 'just like that' - come out and announce that they're shutting it down - there would be open revolt. That's the stuff of totalitarian dystopia movies. Instead, they passed legislation that will basically let them DO that any time they like, and then engage in crafty smear campaigns, covered extensively by the media (no doubt with insider influence), about how doctors and nurses are bumbling incompetent fools and how we need reform and changes, all the while cutting funding a little more here and there, removing services and ordering restructuring and slight policy changes that will kill it from the ground up. It's a slow grind, a war of attrition, and if the US gov't ever decided to ban firearms I guarantee that's how it would happen - not with a sudden BAN ON ALL GUNS but a slow creep - ban automatics, ban "scary looking guns", introduce policy changes that limits who can have guns, slowly at first (licensing, required training, not to be given to felons or people in XYZ category, things that a lot of people won't argue with), introduce max ammo caps on magazines, ban certain types of ammo, use mass shootings to argue why there should be reform and limits against who can carry guns... And make it all sound convincing with clever media smear campaigns, inject the ideas into popular culture... They aren't stupid, no-one would dare come right out on the news and say they are banning guns... They just need to make you believe that you shouldn't have them.

Aaaand now I sound like a crazed conspiracy nut

[Scrince]

Thats exactly whats happening in the states....