Well, Bill, "won't" is a natural induction from everything you and I and others have already said.

I hope I'm wrong.

Perhaps we can learn from the Australian example, but one thing we know already is that Australians now register their firearms by serial number with the government. I cannot imagine such a measure passing both houses of Congress in the world as we know it.

Because the other thing we know about Australia is that it has no Second Amendment "guarantee." Americans do not want the government restricting any Constitutional guarantees. In Australia, this seems not to have been an issue, because (I assume) relatively few Australians assume that "liberals" and "socialists" and "radical liberals" in government are always to subvert the Constitution. Americans who hate and fear Washington are a fringe minority, but if you try to take their away guns away they will shoot you.

When I was in public elementary school in the 1950s, we were taught that because of the Second Amendment, armed citizens could some day protect us from a berserk government; or, better yet, make the government think twice before going berserk. Many gun owners are convinced that is true, and they will surrender their firearms to the state only over their dead bodies. (I don't know how often Adolf Hitler was seriously invoked in Ozzie as the world's most typical gun-control advocate, but it's still happening here.)

Some day, perhaps, the gun-show loophole will be closed.

But how many lives that would save is not at all clear. Remember that virtually all of the most notorious mass shooters used weapons that they or their family owned legally.

I don't mean to be negative, only realistic. Which at least 50% of the time means "pessimistic."