The only solution with any real hope of success is mass peaceful civil disobedience. Last estimates I heard indicated about 1,000,000 privately-owned firearms that will be subject to the new law, and around 500,000 individual owners. Assuming that even 1/5 of those folks take a stand, refuse to register, refuse to surrender their property, etc, that would mean about 100,000 new criminal cases.
Does anyone know of a jail or prison with 100,000 empty bed spaces? Is there a state or local law enforcement agency with idle time on their hands to take care of another 100,000 new criminal cases?
I'm thinking that if each one of those 100,000 people put up a $100 bill there would be a $10,000,000 legal defense fund immediately. And I'm willing to bet that another million people or so across the country would also put up a $100 bill to provide a $100,000,000 war chest available. More than enough to keep a hundred bright young law school graduates at work churning out motions, tying up criminal cases in the courts for years, and filing both state and federal civil rights lawsuits until every judge in the state starts begging the legislature to repeal this stupid law.
Our neighbors in Canada went through a similar experience with a national law requiring licensing of all gun owners and registration of all firearms. It took about 15 years, but they were able to get the law overturned. The actual level of compliance was never more than about 15%. Some of the tactics used by LUFA (the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association) were:
1. Massive rallies in major cities, featuring displays of members' unregistered firearms, announced well in advance with invitations sent to law enforcement agencies to come and arrest them.
2. A rallying cry among LUFA members to "Come and go to jail with us".
3. Waiting until the last day for legal registrations, then many thousands of folks converging on government offices, taking every parking space for miles around and lining up by the thousands to register their guns. When the overwhelmed staffs turned them away they all provided each other with sworn affidavits attesting to the fact that they had attempted to comply with the law, but were not allowed by the government to do so.
4. When the government decided to allow registrations by mail, LUFA advised members to fill out the 3-part registration forms and keep the individual copies, then purchase a postal money order and keep the receipt copy, then destroy the original documents. Since the Canadian government never was able to completely enter all of the data, there would be no way to prove that the individual had not complied with the law.
5. Repeated "freedom of information" actions requiring the government to disclose the actual costs of the registration program, which turned out to be many times higher than promised by the government, thus turning public sentiment further against the law.
6. Some Canadian provincial governments passed laws prohibiting the national government from enforcing the new law within those provinces.
In short, lots of things can be done. Organization of the people involved will be the key.
Peaceful civil disobedience. Thousands of people sending the message that they will not comply, that the only way the government can impose the law will be by arrest and prosecution, that every case will be fought in the courts, that every conviction will be appealed, and that every arrest will result in lawsuits.
Our entire system of law is based upon, and requires, voluntary compliance. When even a relatively small percentage of the population refuses to comply voluntarily it becomes impossible to enforce any law.
