Would there be a gun grab?

[Gazza]

Has there ever been a national gun grab by the governments in times of war?
If society did start to breakdown what would be the chances of you having to hand in your guns?

[DaveB]

Well, considering that as I recall it was WWI that started the whole gun-control nonsense in the UK, it is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Based on how well-regulated firearms are these days, the stage is certainly set to make such a grab easy.

[Blackstuff]

Depends on the circumstances I'd guess. If it was a small localised event, or one so massive it required the police/armed forces to be doing more pressing things probably not, at least straight away. If say there was a large scale 'revolt' of the general population or some other slow-burn but large scale event i'm sure they'd firstly simply prohibit civilian ownership and therefore get the majority of people to had them in of their own accord, rather than having to go door-to-door.

The Nazi's took guns from Jewish people in the lead up to WWII (but at the same time relaxed the then strict gun laws for Nazi party members). I think i've read about the disarming of some of the people in the Rwandan genocide too.

[Pete]

Yes...........the minute things started to get ugly.
It would only take one incident by some brain-dead civilian numpty involving a firearm at a time of insurrection, legally held or not.

Pete

[snayperskaya]

If it was a fairly sudden SHTF scenario the police etc would probably have more pressing matters at hand and if it was an "every man for himself" break down of society scenario I think the number and type of illegally held firearms that would come out of the woodwork would be a real eye-opener!.

[ovenpaa]

Last memorable one was when the US NRA shipped a load of rifles to the UK to arm the people in case of invasion during WWII. They were held by the Home Office or whatever it was in those days and sold onto the public many years later. So an indirect action however same sort of thing ish.

I have an old .22 Hornet with such roots :)

[breacher]

The handgun ban in Ireland started as a "temporary" confiscation of privately held handguns due to the troubles in Ulster. They were never handed back.

It was decades later that they finally relented and started permitting handguns.

Not sure if the confiscated ones were ever returned - likely many of the owners died off in the meantime !

[ovenpaa]

Anyone care to take a wild stab as to how many firearms would still be in circulation if all legally held items were 'grabbed'? My guess is in excess of 100k for shotguns, rifles, handguns etc.

[Blackstuff]

I'd imagine there would be a significant spike in the numbers of firearms being 'lost' in the run up to a complete ban

[Daryll]

Being on a couple of US shooting fora, this is a surprisingly common topic, with threads on "how can I safely store firearms underground for long periods?"

Generally the American shooters distrust the Federal Government more then we distrust ours...!!

They have seen what happens when countries introduce registration of firearms, which is why they're so against it.... in their eyes registration=confiscation.