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Originally posted by Zeld2.0
This isn't necessarily addressed to your post but this is in general:
A gun still won't knock out a tank. Nor will a single person with a gun threaten a 'government.'
The best thing going for this 'government' though is that the 'government' is made up of people.
At any rate I only find it silly because, in the end, guns or not, you're not going to stop the modern military unless the people running it are on your side.
If the entire military were robots, then yes, do fear indeed for they may be controlled at the whim of one mad man.
Which is another reason why I find the guns versus government argument to be a bit off in the modern day. Do they protect you from government? If you mean immediate government, sure, though you really shouldn't be needing if lest you commit a crime. Then, in which case, who is more wrong? Surely, it would depend on the nature of the crime.
But against the modern military? This is one of those catch-22s and double edged blades. The stronger you want the military, the less likely you have a chance at stopping it. It's just a simple fact and a good reason why revolts don't happen at the rates they do today in nations without military support.
But in the end, that's probably the least of my concerns right now. It's far easier to slowly take away our rights one by one through means deemed legitimate than to take away our rights illegally in force.
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History has many examples of poorly armed groups defeating a much better equiped force. Just to name a few. The Viet Cong never fielded tanks yet they defeated them by ambushing the crews. Present day Iraqi insurgents use IED's made from pipe bombs and other assorted explosives mostly handmade to kill tanks. Revolutionary war we had no navy to speak of yet with personal weapons we captured a few ships which allowed us to build a Navy from scratch.
If looking at the context of a civil war within the US. The first thing I would try for would be the National Guard Armories to gain access to heavier weapons. A personal rifle would greatly help in that. I also believe that the National Guard would not inheritly back the US government in a popular rebellion as they would be made up of locals having to fight their neighbors never a sure fire thing. Also factor the US military is mostly based over seas and is not equiped to put down a rebellion in a country of this size. What targets would a B2 bomber really have or our vaunted Navy? Plus this would be all urban warfare. With the size of force in Iraq they can barely control the cities with 130,000 troops. We simply don't have enough troops to even fully secure LA and New York without factoring in rural America.