[aporetics]

> How would Hong Kong look right now if the population were lightly armed?

Let’s be honest, if they were armed and gun ownership weren’t already against the law, the Chinese government would sweep in and pass a law that day and start going door to door, seizing weapons, take the people from their families and send then to reeducation camps. It wouldn’t forward their cause at all.

The word “civic” is odd here too (I recognize that your comment is about the intent of the parent comment’s argument), because the opposite pole to political violence is… civil discourse. There is an unavoidable incoherence to the idea that gun ownership is about civic responsibility.

[throwaway0a5e]

Going door to door to confiscate people's property is far from a bloodless process.

What the GP said about "upping the stakes" is very true.