The President of the United States, who is not at all malicious, oatmeal-brained jackass, recently pointed out that the 2nd Amendment is not a protection against government tyranny because commercially available firearms are no use against F-15 fighter planes. Fair point. Gun guys like to point out that superior tech didn't help the United States win in Vietnam, Iraq 2, or Afghanistan, also a fair point, but no one in America wants to undergo the carnage that happened in those countries. What both sides are missing, however is that tyrannical governments don't generally waste high-tech munitions on their own citizens; there are other more cost-effective ways to terrorize your own people.
Looking at Europe in the 20's and 30's Spain and Germany slipped into chaos. In both cases right and left-wing militias would fight it out in the street, and while the government was officially neutral in theory, in practice they would go easy on their favored militias and come down hard on the unfavored ones. If you were a Marxist rioter in Spain you knew you had a degree of immunity for your crimes, while if you were a Marxist rioter in Germany you knew you would suffer the full consequences of the law.
We saw this unfold in America in 2020: state and city governments refused to shut down left-wing riots in order to create an atmosphere of fear and chaos, and warn America what would happen if Trump were reelected. Some of the riots were just for show, the victims mostly government buildings and the occasional counter-protester or just unfortunate people caught driving in the wrong place.
Kenosha was different. During the day professional activists would march for Black Lives in an aggressive but more or less orderly fashion, but that first night a true riot broke out and arsons torched some local businesses. The BLM activists were not the arsonists, but the unrest brought out a lot of anti-social weirdos who took advantage of the situation to cause mayhem.
The second night the mayor refused police protection and the governor refused to call out the National Guard, knowing full well what would happen. What were businesses to do? One used-car lot that had lost a lot of inventory and was likely underinsured asked around and hired a crew of gun-owners for security. Other concerned citizens dismayed by the chaos spontaneously joined them. What else were they supposed to do, the Mayor and Governor having decided that the peace, property, and security of the town didn't matter?
When one of the anti-social arsonists got himself deservedly shot to death, the State, rather than second-guess its strategy of inviting chaos and arson into a sleepy midwestern town, decided to charge the young man who defended himself with second degree murder. The state had no case, and surely knew they had no case, the kid having broken no laws other than violating an unenforced curfew order, but it was essential to 1) deflect blame from the mayor 2) inflict as much pain as possible on a perceived enemy and 3) let the small-business owners that they are utterly powerless: the police will not protect them and they are not allowed to protect themselves.
The tool that the government will use to terrorize and subjugate their citizens is not expensive and high-tech equipment but the Joseph Rosenbaums of the world, who are quite cheap, and who are effective against a disarmed citizenry.
Now, time for a Black Pill: if the U.S. Government wanted to go all-in on tyranny the heavily armed American populace wouldn't be the obstacle that 2nd Amendment enthusiasts think it is. As we saw with Rittenhouse, the government will punish you with the criminal justice process even if you did nothing illegal, and you will never be able to live a normal life again. That is better than being dead of course but the intention is to make citizens think twice about banding together to protect their communities against government-sanctioned riots. You can disarm a populace not by taking away their guns but by making the use of them - especially using them on behalf of the community - unthinkable. With the growth of the surveillance state it will only become more difficult.
Almost 40 years ago Richard John Neuhaus pointed out that the progressive social ideal of individuals liberated from "oppressive" traditional systems like the patriarchal family, the church, and backwards community morals only created atomized individuals at mercy of the state. The process is much more advanced today and all the privately owned guns in America, if they are in the possession of atomized and alienated people, are no serious threat to the state.
So if you are feeling a little paranoid, by all means, exercise your 2nd Amendment rights, but the real bulwarks against government overreach will be your circles of friends and the work you put into building up your local community.
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