Is the skyrocketing sale of firearms driven by fear or is it simply human nature? ...

[spin]

17. I've learned by living in Florida to be careful of rattlesnakes. ...

Do not provoke a rattlesnake. Angering a snake will result in one response — you become its target. Remember — a snake is defending itself from attack in such a case and if you poke it with sticks, throw stones at it, kick at it or do silly little jigs around it, you are asking for trouble. And worse still, there may well be a difference in the venom between an angered rattlesnake and one reacting quickly in self-defense — the toxicity may be increased, whereas a surprised rattlesnake may only bite without injecting venom (possible, not certain). Whatever the strength of the venom, an angered rattlesnake will be more likely to keep striking.

Leave the snake alone. Many people are bitten in the process of trying to heroically rid the world of one more bothersome snake. Apart from the snake not being bothersome, the snake is going to bite you to try and defend itself. Live and let live — back off and let it have its space to slither away. And be warned — there is a reason for the saying "as mad as a cut snake" — an injured snake is a very, very dangerous foe.
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-a-Rattlesnake-Attack

Now I will agree that if our government ever passed a law to ban and confiscate firearms or even just assault weapons, most honest owners would decide the best approach would be to comply. I would fit into that group as I am far too old and smart to attempt to take on the government.

However a small percentage of gun owners in our nation would decide to resist forcefully. Consider that some of these "patriots" have received extensive military training and have experienced combat because of our nation's recent tendency to engage in warfare at the drop of a hat. Imagine the havoc that 1000 or 5000 terrorists could inflict on our nation and its infrastructure.

Add to this the fact that many police officers in our nation would be unwilling to enforce confiscations and would refuse to aid the federal government and also many of our military would be unwilling to shoot fellow Americans simply because they owned banned firearms.

Instead of decreasing the level of violence in our nation, we might suffer a period of unprecedented and needless violence especially if an effort was made to ban and confiscate all firearms. We might also see some states such as Texas decide to secede from the union.

Recently a former cop went on a revenge killing spree in LA and terrorized California for nine long days and the police knew exactly who he was. Imagine the amount of damage an individual who was not known could cause and then multiply it by perhaps 5000.

In the end the government might win and manage to disarm all civilians or perhaps just eliminate the ownership of all assault weapons, but would it really be worth all the effort and all the problems?

A little known fact is that the level of gun violence and violent crime in our nation is currently approaching an all time low. Why don't we simply improve and better enforce our existing laws? If we do so we might reach the point where gun violence is extremely rare.

In fact ending our failed War on Drugs would probably reduce gun violence far more than imposing another Assault Weapons Ban. Improving our mental health care system could significantly reduce the number of tragic massacres in our nation as many of the recent shooters have waved red flags which were totally ignored prior to their running amok.

But realistically discussing the possibility of a national gun ban and confiscation is a foolish waste of time as it is simply not going to happen anytime in the near future. Most political experts feel the new Assault Weapons Ban is dead in the water. Some states might try to accomplish this but they will likely run afoul of the Supreme Court. I predict we will see major improvements to our NICS background check system such as requirements for the states to input data to the system on a more timely basis. I also see an excellent chance that a background check will be required for the sale of ALL firearms which would effectively close the "Gun Show Loophole."

What I "fear" is that many good Democrats will lose close elections in red states even if they have high ratings from the NRA because some in our party support gun bans and a few wish for gun confiscations. This might happen at the local, state and national levels. This might endanger all the good we have been able to accomplish in the last four years.