Many gun rights advocates fear confiscation. Think about the process of actually gaining procession of the weapons.
1. In the US there are about 50 million households than own one or more of the 300 million guns. (2010)
2. There are 900,000 sworn law enforcement officers (LEO) at federal, state and local level. (recent but year unknown)
3. This means EACH officer would have to collect the guns of over 50 households.
4. Some officers would refuse or obstruct the process, leaving willing officers to visit even more households. (My guess is the most common form of obstruction would be foot dragging, lol.)
5. It would take more than one officer and maybe even a full SWAT team to collect guns from many of the households. Think time, money and possible lives. If 2% of households were willing to fight for their guns, that would be 1,000,000 sieges with >10 million LEO lives on the line, probably more civilians and a hell of a lot of time and money.
6. Many guns would not be where expected because of old records, owner address changes, and gifted, sold or stolen pieces.
7. The whereabouts and ownership of millions of guns is just plain unknown. For a paranoid government, obtaining those unknown weapons would be the most critical for the success of the mission. I don't think any of us fear the guns we know about more than the ones we don't.
8. LEOs would have to accomplish this IN ADDITION to their regular duties.
In these tight budgetary times, government just doesn't have the time, money and personnel to confiscate guns. IMHO, it can't happen. It is a waste of my time to worry about it.