I've, further, got some strong suspicions that a look at history and whatever limited and noisy data are available, is more likely to support the notion that ou

I've, further, got some strong suspicions that a look at history and whatever limited and noisy data are available, is more likely to support the notion that our kind of gun laws are at least as much a risk to the maintenance of liberal democracy, as a protector of it. Yet, that's a common justification for why we mustn't question the 2nd. AFAIK they've contributed at least as often to imposing oppression as to resisting oppression, on the local scale in the US. Then there's revolutions in other countries, where they seem at least as often to aid overthrowing a democracy as to play a pivotal role in defending it (though, from what I can tell, they hardly matter in either case—foreign aid and gaining the support of elements of the military are usually far, far more effective in actually forcing an outcome). That's in addition to the hard-to-quantify harm to freedom from having to worry about terrified, trigger-happy cops. Got half a mind to research it and write a book about whatever I find....