[baskethead]

I'm not a pro-NRA gun nut, and I hate to say it, but this shows you the dangers of when only the government has the guns. I'm pretty sure that if guns were available to regular people, there would have been a transition to a different government decades ago. The fact that this backwards, misogynistic government can remain in power for the better part of a century despite Iran being filled with highly educated people with a rich culture is a crime against humanity. And yes, I'm fully aware that this was caused by the US and the CIA, my point is that it should be taken down by its citizens but it has no power to do so.

[abawany]

Afghanistan is drowning in guns - I don't see a liberal democracy emerging there anytime this century (please let this be my "Dropbox is a weekend project" comment - I'd love to be wrong.)

[baskethead]

Afghanistan is different from Iran. Even today, Iranians are highly educated and they have historically been highly educated. Most of Afghanistan that the US was trying to mobilized was uneducated and living in tiny villages with no real stake as to who won or lost. With Iran's highly educated population and militarized, they have a much better chance of standing up to the fascist government and enacting change.

[brutal_chaos_]

A woman in Iran would not be allowed to own a gun. Maybe men, if any people. We have cops cuffing you, throwing you in the back of their car, and leaving said car on train tracks to be hit by an on coming train (see Colorado police video gaining traction in the news). The cops (morality police) in Iran killed the poor woman for indecency. The cops in the US still act egregiously and we have guns. Guns will not help.

[baskethead]

A woman in Iran would not be allowed to own a gun only because of the fascist regime in place today. Back pre-Ayatollah, Iran wasn't as misogynistic as it is today. It was one of the most forward Muslim nations in the world. I imagine that if Iran were liberated, they would be similar to Israel in the sense that men and women would all be mobilized into an army and trained such that something like the Ayatollah could never happen again.

[Alir3z4]

That would be civil war for sure. Syria/Libya/etc 2.0

There are enough separatist groups in Iran backed up by many foreign countries, already armed and they do their share of evil on civilians and law enforcement and military.

Replacing any government by any means usually ends up with power vacuum, breeds terrorists and unleash demons from hell.

[int_19h]

Would it necessarily be a bad thing for Iranian ethnic minorities to separate?

[inawarminister]

Nationalism is and has always been a disaster to human race.

[int_19h]

Iran is itself a nation-state, and one that imposes its culture (and esp. religious norms) on the minorities. Pushing back against that may itself be nationalism, but even then it would be lesser evil.

[edflsafoiewq]

There was an armed transition to a different government decades ago, it's what installed the Islamic government.