I can understand people saying they need guns for protection, especially in areas where police response is slow or unreliable or even nonexistent.
But I am concerned about people who say they need guns for protection from what they call a "tyrannical federal government". If the government decides to turn on us, they're not going to do it by sending large numbers of ground troops to engage in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat with civilians. There would be too many casualties and it would take too long. A tyrannically minded military would use its more powerful and advanced weapons instead. Those weapons include tanks, grenades, artillery cannons, rocket launchers, battleships, attack helicopters, fighter jets, bombers, aircraft carriers, and nuclear weapons. And all of those weapons are weapons that the vast majority of us do not have the money to afford, the space to store, or the qualifications or skills to operate.
We were able to defeat the British in the late 1770s using mostly ground troops and rifles, but we needed some help from the French Navy to finally win the war in Yorktown. So I don't think any of us ordinary average joes with shotguns, rifles and handguns have any chance at all of overthrowing what we see as a "tyrannical federal government", if that government has vastly more powerful weapons than we will.
