Here’s a plausible scenario of what may unfold on America’s election night, Nov. 3, and over the days soon after. Due to the pandemic, a large portion of American voters will be mailing in their ballots, which will be tallied after election day. So far, an estimated 40 per cent of voters plan to vote by mail due to concerns over COVID-19 and social distancing at polling stations. Yet Republicans are expected to vote at polling booths in much greater numbers than Democrats. Consequently, on election night, there’s a good chance many states will appear to have been won by Donald Trump, but will eventually go to Democratic hopeful Joe Biden once those mail-in ballots are counted. But you can bet Trump won’t wait, prematurely declaring himself the victor on Nov. 3. In the following days, as the mail-in ballots are counted and the numbers shift away from Trump and towards Biden, Trump will then claim he’s the victim of some form of “deep state” conspiracy designed to steal his election victory. He will refuse to concede the election and instead call on his supporters to take to the streets to keep him firmly in the White House. Here’s the really alarming thing — those supporters have lots and lots of weapons. There are 393 million firearms in the U.S. In fact, there are an estimated 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States — or one gun for every citizen, plus 67 million weapons left over. Americans are by far the most heavily armed people in the world, even when compared to war-torn countries like Yemen. And they use them: Excluding suicides, 15,292 Americans were fatally shot last year, an increase of three percent over 2018. However, this does not mean every American owns a firearm. Gun ownership skews towards conservatives living in rural areas and red states over urban-dwelling liberals living in blue states. For example, Texas has the highest number of registered weapons with 725,368 (or one registered gun for every 40 people). Vermont, home to Bernie Sanders, has only 7,716 (or one registered weapon for every 80 people).  [full article]