5 ms·

Most Americans have guns. The police has better weapons, but it would be a war of attrition, and I doubt most police would want to go on killing sprees against

Most Americans have guns. The police has better weapons, but it would be a war of attrition, and I doubt most police would want to go on killing sprees against their fellow countrymen. Although I doubt it'd reach the point of massive insurrection. That would require a total loss of trust in the government, and I think we're still far from that.

pazimzadeh 8y ago
30% of Americans have guns http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/ http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-o...
- Infernal 8y ago
  I wonder how much of the privately owned land area of the US is owned by Americans who own guns?
lev99 8y ago
An attempt to overthrow the government is handled by the military, not the police. The military has more guns, better supply lines, and better discipline than police forces.
- prolikewh0a 8y ago
  It would be terrible to see the military killing its own citizens in defense of a corrupt government that doesn't work for those citizens.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    It’s easy though, just tell them they are undocumented Mexican transsexuals who voted for Obama.
  - lev99 8y ago
    It would be far from the first time that has happened in history.
    - prolikewh0a 8y ago
      It certainly wouldn't surprise me if history repeated itself.
paulie_a 8y ago
Most Americans don't have guns. Gun owners are a minority with a very loud voice.
- e12e 8y ago
  One in three households or thereabouts. It's certainly not "most" - but not sure "vocal minority" is accurate either? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/american-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/?noredirect=on&noredirect=on&utm_term=.dfe132e0fe6f https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/ameri...
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    A house hold often includes more than one person. Those other individuals are not gun owners. Gun owners are a fairly small group with a very powerful lobby that needs to be ignored.
    - e12e 8y ago
      This (and the sibling) strikes me as an odd interpretation - there are more guns than people in the US - most households with any guns, have more than one gun. And as I see it living in a household with guns, generally means access to guns? So I readily read one in three households, as strictly more than one in three persons - have access to guns?
      - dragonwriter 8y ago
        > So I readily read one in three households, as strictly more than one in three persons That's a bad reading. Even if everyone in a household with a gun owner have access to guns, that would mean 33% of households implies exactly 33% of people if gun ownership is distributed among households with no bias by household size. It doesn't imply more than 33% of people unless gun owning households are larger than non-gun-owning households.
      - imtringued 8y ago
code_duck 8y ago
How old is the average American gun owner? Are they physically fit? Merely owning guns is different than possessing the physical ability and training in weapons and tactics to use them effectively, especially versus military or paramilitary forces (National Guard and Border Patrol is a much more likely initial pro-government force than police). Not only are they equipped and trained with the same weapons civilians may have, they also have automatic weapons, nightvision, grenades, armored vehicles, helicopters, tear gas, sonic weapons, fire trucks, and a lot more.
- Rescis 8y ago
  Keep in mind that the very modern, very well funded, and very well equipped US military has been fighting a bunch of dudes with rifles and IED's for the past several dozen years without conclusive victories or signs of the resistance slowing. That US military is also neither attacking its own citizens it has filial and friendly ties with, nor attacking people who look and talk like it. Modern armor and missiles don't accomplish much when the enemies main goal is to just live as they want to (instead of conquer territory or resources).
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    To be fair, the U.S. military is very effective against the individual people they are fighting at any given moment. Kill ratios in recent conflicts are of the order of 100:1. It's just that for every insurgent you kill, you create 10 more. Unless your goal is to just depopulate the rest of the globe (something I wonder about, given recent U.S. foreign policy), you can't actually win this war without addressing the conditions that lead people to hate the U.S. in the first place.
- FussyZeus 8y ago
  In every instance throughout history, the $weapon wielded by the peasant has been vastly inferior to the one wielded by the noble's army, guards, etc. In fact one could argue that the peasantry has never been less outgunned that they are currently, when previous uprisings made do with sticks and rocks, and the heads of the wealthy still rolled in the end. The fact is that the select few protect themselves with rolls of the sons and daughters of the masses. Sure, plenty of them will turn their weapons on their fellow countrymen for a paycheck, but how many? And for how long? And especially once those bullets start flying, how useful is the money being paid to those guards? How long before they have all the money they could ever want and no one will sell them food? In our hyper-connected world, we lose people jobs when they crack a racist joke on twitter. How hard will it be to find the 1%'s executioners?

pazimzadeh 8y ago

30% of Americans have guns http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/ http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-o...

Infernal 8y ago
I wonder how much of the privately owned land area of the US is owned by Americans who own guns?

lev99 8y ago

An attempt to overthrow the government is handled by the military, not the police. The military has more guns, better supply lines, and better discipline than police forces.

prolikewh0a 8y ago
It would be terrible to see the military killing its own citizens in defense of a corrupt government that doesn't work for those citizens.
- code_duck 8y ago
  It’s easy though, just tell them they are undocumented Mexican transsexuals who voted for Obama.
- lev99 8y ago
  It would be far from the first time that has happened in history.
  - prolikewh0a 8y ago
    It certainly wouldn't surprise me if history repeated itself.

paulie_a 8y ago

Most Americans don't have guns. Gun owners are a minority with a very loud voice.

e12e 8y ago
One in three households or thereabouts. It's certainly not "most" - but not sure "vocal minority" is accurate either? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/american-gun-ownership-is-now-at-a-30-year-low/?noredirect=on&noredirect=on&utm_term=.dfe132e0fe6f https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/29/ameri...
- paulie_a 8y ago
  A house hold often includes more than one person. Those other individuals are not gun owners. Gun owners are a fairly small group with a very powerful lobby that needs to be ignored.
  - e12e 8y ago
    This (and the sibling) strikes me as an odd interpretation - there are more guns than people in the US - most households with any guns, have more than one gun. And as I see it living in a household with guns, generally means access to guns? So I readily read one in three households, as strictly more than one in three persons - have access to guns?
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > So I readily read one in three households, as strictly more than one in three persons That's a bad reading. Even if everyone in a household with a gun owner have access to guns, that would mean 33% of households implies exactly 33% of people if gun ownership is distributed among households with no bias by household size. It doesn't imply more than 33% of people unless gun owning households are larger than non-gun-owning households.
    - imtringued 8y ago

code_duck 8y ago

How old is the average American gun owner? Are they physically fit? Merely owning guns is different than possessing the physical ability and training in weapons and tactics to use them effectively, especially versus military or paramilitary forces (National Guard and Border Patrol is a much more likely initial pro-government force than police). Not only are they equipped and trained with the same weapons civilians may have, they also have automatic weapons, nightvision, grenades, armored vehicles, helicopters, tear gas, sonic weapons, fire trucks, and a lot more.

Rescis 8y ago
Keep in mind that the very modern, very well funded, and very well equipped US military has been fighting a bunch of dudes with rifles and IED's for the past several dozen years without conclusive victories or signs of the resistance slowing. That US military is also neither attacking its own citizens it has filial and friendly ties with, nor attacking people who look and talk like it. Modern armor and missiles don't accomplish much when the enemies main goal is to just live as they want to (instead of conquer territory or resources).
- nostrademons 8y ago
  To be fair, the U.S. military is very effective against the individual people they are fighting at any given moment. Kill ratios in recent conflicts are of the order of 100:1. It's just that for every insurgent you kill, you create 10 more. Unless your goal is to just depopulate the rest of the globe (something I wonder about, given recent U.S. foreign policy), you can't actually win this war without addressing the conditions that lead people to hate the U.S. in the first place.
FussyZeus 8y ago
In every instance throughout history, the $weapon wielded by the peasant has been vastly inferior to the one wielded by the noble's army, guards, etc. In fact one could argue that the peasantry has never been less outgunned that they are currently, when previous uprisings made do with sticks and rocks, and the heads of the wealthy still rolled in the end. The fact is that the select few protect themselves with rolls of the sons and daughters of the masses. Sure, plenty of them will turn their weapons on their fellow countrymen for a paycheck, but how many? And for how long? And especially once those bullets start flying, how useful is the money being paid to those guards? How long before they have all the money they could ever want and no one will sell them food? In our hyper-connected world, we lose people jobs when they crack a racist joke on twitter. How hard will it be to find the 1%'s executioners?