In the face of firearm rights suppression, it might be wise to look into the world of air rifles a little more. Here's the story with pics of a guy taking a 2,000 pound Buffalo with one. http://www.bigboreairguns.com/07bisonhunt.htm And HERE is Quakenbush Air Guns.... the guy makes awesome guns in 308 and 50 caliber (including the one that took the bison). Here is the Airgun Hunter Site... These guys go on African Safari with air rifles. No worrying about ammo and/or reloading supplies. Buy yourself a bullet mold and an air compressor and your self sufficient. Quiet and Deadly
IIRC they arent all that quiet when you get into the powerful ones, at least not like you would think of like the Red Rider BB guns or something. I figure that if they decide to take all the regular guns then they would be going after any airguns too, especialy the ones powerful enouph for big game.
There is a member here that is big on air guns. Do a search on RicDoug and read some of his posts and links. Pretty impressive, what a bit of compressed air can do with a pellet.
The Lewis and Clark expedition actually carried a couple of air rifles for hunting and protection. One is in the Smithsonian. I think it was .60 caliber, if I remember right.