You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.

Isoroku Yamamoto
Commander-in-Chief, Imperial Japanese Navy
Killed In Action, April 1943

We suspect that Admiral Yamamoto was more right than he could ever know.

As the economy continues its unimpeded fall into depression and uncertainty grips the country, Americans are responding by arming themselves at record levels:

Via The Daily Crux and Zero Hedge
Data Sourced via Gallup (1,2)

Forty-seven percent of American adults currently report that they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property. This is up from 41% a year ago and is the highest Gallup has recorded since 1993, albeit marginally above the 44% and 45% highs seen during that period.

Almost half of American households have at least one firearm in their homes. Considering that many households have multiple weapons, we’d venture a guess that there are more firearms in American homes than there are people living within our borders.

We can’t help but feel proud about that. The second amendment, after countless attacks since the Republic came into existence, has survived and remains a formidable force against the spread of tyranny and criminal trespass by those who would do harm to the lawful.

There, are of course, those who would ban gun ownership altogether. They’re more than likely the people that have rarely picked up a history book to understand what happens when governments disarm their people. You need look at only one historical example to see the potentially horrific consequences of such actions:

German firearm laws and hysteria created against Jewish firearm owners played a major role in laying the groundwork for the eradication of German Jewry in the Holocaust.  Disarming political opponents was a categorical imperative of the Nazi regime.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

This right, which reflects a universal and historical power of the people in a republic to resist tyranny, was not recognized in the German Reich

Source: Stephen Halbrook

Luckily for us, Gallup indicates that banning gun ownership is not as popular as some would like to make us believe. In fact, the percent of Americans who would agree to a law banning hand gun ownership  has been on a steady decline for the last 50 years – another sign that there is still hope:

We may often find ourselves playing in to the stereotype that it’s the democrats that want to take away our guns. While there is no doubt that the majority of those 26% of Americans who would outright ban personal handgun ownership are left-leaning liberals, in general, Gallup’s poll suggests that party affiliation isn’t as a huge a factor as we may think. Sure, fewer left leaning democrat households own firearms, but curiously, gun purchases by democrats in the last year have outpaced those of their republican counterparts:

It looks like  even Democrats have realized that the the right of personal protection affirmed by the Second Amendment of the Constitution may come in handy during an economic depression as burglary, robbery, rape, theft and random violence will undoubtedly rise.

These latest surveys suggest that the social consciousness is responding to a threat – otherwise Americans wouldn’t be buying guns at the levels they have in just the last year. The people feel it. They may not know what it is, but it’s there…looming.