"I am just curious, when the day comes that the government wants to confiscate everyone's firearms, who do you think will be tasked with job of physically removing them from people's homes?
Also, do you think a lot of those people will refuse the order? "
The error here is in thinking of this as "when the day comes..."
There won't be a "day". There will be weeks, months, years, decades. This is a long haul effort, not a "hail Mary" play.
It is an exceedingly simple, and exceedingly efficient manner, to accomplish this over a period of time by a variety of very simple means, such as:
1. Establish and promote a hotline people can call and turn in suspected gun owners who may be in violation of any gun laws. As part of that, offer some nominal reward.
2. Change the police paradigm with respect to questioning of suspects and how they approach certain "routine" procedures. For example, pushing for more "probable cause" events in traffic stops. If a person is found to have a firearm in a vehicle illegally, whether or not the weapon itself is compliant with the laws, this may also be deemed to be probable cause for a search warrant involving your home.
3. We're seeing more invasion of privacy issues with respect to the medical community and firearms. Information gleened from this may eventually be used as "probably cause" for search warrants.
4. As more and more databases tie in together with information on gun owners and various registration and accounting methods, expect law enforcement to be able to eventually tie together information to make reasonable suspicion determination on whether or not any given citizen may or may not have a certain type of firearm (or ammunition). If it's known that Citizen Joe has, or had at one time, a certain firearm, then it's a simple matter to find SOMETHING Citizen Joe does which will meet the wicket for probable cause.
Scenario: Federal records show that Citizen Joe bought a Baretta 92FS 10 years ago, when 15 round magazines were standard. Law enforcement knows where Citizen Joe lives and what Citizen Joe drives. Law enforcement also knows Citizen Joe carrys a concealed weapons permit. Law enforcement watches Citizen Joe run a stop sign in his subdivision. During the traffic stop, the officer finds probable cause and conducts a vehicle search. A Baretta 92FS is found in the vehicle with an illegal 15 round magazine. Weapon and magazine confiscated, Citizen Joe is arrested. On the basis that where there is one illegal weapon there are likely to be more, a search warrant is obtained to search Citizen Joe's house and more are rounded up.
AND GET THIS: Even if this scenario is battled in court and thrown out because the initial probable cause was found bogus and law enforcement had no legal right to do what they did the way they went about it, Citizen Joe will never get any of his former property back because it is still, in itself, "illegal". And good ole Citizen Joe is out at least thousands for the court costs, too.
The bottom line here is that there are any number of ways that authorities can, over time, confiscate growing numbers of firearms without ever having to conduct a massive confiscation move.
Someone else in THR recently said this is a game of chess, not checkers. (I'd credit him if I remembered who it was.) That means it's all about strategy and attrition in a game with complex rules and moves; making small moves now for small gains which eventually result in checkmate.
Minor pieces which can be used to clear the path for major pieces and increase their effectiveness. Major pieces that can circumvent others by going around them.
One does not have to be a conspiracy nut to think outside the box here. So quit thinking of confiscation in a "brute force" fashion and start thinking about it in terms of "finesse" in which you have years and decades in which to accomplish the final goal.
