As far as I can tell a lack of public and/or political will to commit mass murder (yes, a fair bit happened in Vietnam particularly, to put it mildly, but nothi

As far as I can tell a lack of public and/or political will to commit mass murder (yes, a fair bit happened in Vietnam particularly, to put it mildly, but nothing like systemic mass murders, incarceration, depopulation, and retaliation your average authoritarian regime is OK engaging in to win a fight) or foreign intervention to neutralize the advantages of armor and air superiority (see: Syria, Iraq) plus foreign materiel support are necessary for scrappy underdogs with rifles to win wars against a modern military. Truly evil regimes only seem to get into trouble if foreigners interfere in a major way, or (obviously) they lose support of the military. Private small arms are barely a factor, regardless. [EDIT] my point being that resistance against one's own government, which has turned evil & brutal but still has the support of its military, is not exactly a case in which I'd expect private small arms per se to turn the tide of battle, or have much effect at all compared with other factors, really.