I think I heard your knuckles crack when I read this quote with emphasis added. Please don't tell me that you actually are nonsensical enough to believe that we should actually plan on having to revolt against the US government.

I think it would be foolish to believe that we will NEVER have a tyranny established in America that would require an armed revolution.

I do not believe that will occur in my lifetime or my children's. I do not support a violent overthrow of the US government. While we have lost many liberties that we ought not have lost, we have not yet fallen so far to justify an armed rebellion. But while I doubt this would happen in the next hundred years or so, it's crazy to assume it will absolutely never happen.

It is my opinion that an armed populace serves as a deterrent to tyrrany or invasion. There are an estimated 60-65 million gun owners in the US, who own 200-240 million guns among us. And many of us would shoot back, and share our extra guns with anyone else who wanted to shoot back. That should provide quite a deterrent to the imposition of a bona fide police state or a military occupation (by our government or a foreign power).

While these weapons certainly would be insufficient to overpower even a very small army in a conventional battle (can you see me charging a machine gun nest with my .22 blazing?) they do provide a deterrent effect.

But to believe that we should not fear the advent of tyranny? We have to be eternally vigilant to protect our freedoms. There are many ways to do this. Keeping good men in office to enforce those "governmental controls" is one way. Political activism and lobbying for or against certain laws is another. Fighting injustice in courts is another. Maintaining independent lines of communication and information (e.g., weblogs, newsletters, magazines, whatever) is another. And owning guns is yet another, and is the final backup plan.