[r2_pilot]

> Yes, but only one side has the guns.

Aside from the unnecessary inflammatory injection of firearms, I'd like to clarify and say "only one side thinks only they have the guns". Not that this should matter in a civilized country.

[alexilliamson]

I didn't mean for it to be inflammatory, but it's certainly not unnecessary to the conversation. We can both-sides it all day, but the fact is that one side has a militia proudly ready to use force. Like other commenters have suggested, this isn't necessarily a concern with a functioning civil society. But if we descend into populist mob violence, the side that has eschewed firearms will be at a distinct disadvantage. I hope it doesn't come to that, but it's not so improbable as to be irrelevant here.

[r2_pilot]

I assure you that both sides have firearms in sufficient quantities (I looked up the statistics before I posted) such that if one side attempted armed conflict, it would end poorly and with smaller families at the end.

[CaptWillard]

> Not that this should matter in a civilized country.

It should be very clear by now that "civilization" is more fragile than we'd like to believe.

Society, including the systems that protect you from bad actors, could break down, and quickly.

When it comes to guns, the absense of "government" is an under-appreciated possibility.

[hollerith]

Just look at how useful guns were to average citizens in the USSR during its collapse.

Wait: were guns useful in 1991 to non-gangsters?

[CaptWillard]

I'm sure they were.

You acknowledge the rise of organized crime in a power vacuum, but doubt the utility of self-defense in that environment?

[swiftcoder]

Individual self-defense against organized crime syndicates is not terribly effective. You shoot one guy, the capo shows up with 10 men to shoot you.

A broad organized militia may be able to monopolize enough force to keep organized crime in check... and congratulations, you've just reinvented policing from first principles.

[CaptWillard]

> you've just reinvented policing from first principles.

Yes, in the absense of government protection (scroll up)

[krapp]

In a civilized country, civil society and the rule of law don't depend on the ever-present threat of populist violence to begin with. The US is not a civilized country, and one side definitely not only has most of the guns, but has proven itself more eager to use those guns in the service of their ideological goals than the other.