If Americas government becomes more authoritarian and any resistance develops, I envision the government offering citizens necessities (food, fuel etc.) in exchange for their informing on gun owners, or anybody participating in any resistance activities. It's useful I think, to remember that if our way of life is attacked, that nearly half (possibly more)of our "countrymen" will be on the governments side. Many informants will be peoples own children.
Americans have proven by the laws they demand that liberty is not what they want. Americans want order and safety. Liberty is scary because it includes responsibility for the fall out of what you do. Americans chose what they wanted a long time ago and built a ground up security apparatus to implement it. So it will be very easy, just a slight change in funding and lines of authorities and your local police won’t work for you any longer. They will work for the Feds. But Americans built this infrastructure with their own hands and with their own tax dollars because they wanted to be safe. Protected from their own stupidity and the stupidity of others. They decided to go to war against “reefer madness” aka the drug war. They empowered RICCO. They wanted cameras and strict strict strict traffic enforcement. They asked for implied consent on drivers licenses to get around probable cause. Americans despised the liberty of their fore fathers and demanded control and safety.