A full frontal assault on gun owners by any government agency or political body would be incredibly stupid on many levels. And incremental approaches tend to get lost in the tsunami of regulations that pour out of all levels of govt.
Even businesses often consider fines for breaking some obscure regulation as just the cost of doing business. One of my previous civilian employers even budgets for it, simply because the fines imposed are factored into production costs and eventually passed on to their customers. It's not unusual to consider such fines as a type of baksheesh, since the fines end up in the regulating agency's coffers for their discretionary use, independent of any federal or state money they get for their annual operating budget. Wanna have a big Xmas party in Vegas? Hand out a couple slam-dunk fines.
As for local communities sticking together, I have no doubt that the one I reside in would not tolerate any such move to confiscate or otherwise trample our rights, and that includes our sheriff and deputies, and many of the local military at the nearby AFB, who patronize our local gun shops. As an example, I took some scrap iron down to our local metal recycling place today, and mentioned to the young lady that was running the desk that this cash would allow me to buy some more ammo. Her reply was: "Not if they take our guns first". I told her they'd have some trouble doing that, and she enthusiastically agreed. Granted this is a rural community in MS, so not indicative of metro areas, but still points out the difficulty that would be encountered in a gun grab.