Do you believe individual gun ownership prevents dictatorship, or could do so?

[TheKentuckian]

15. Not a magic insurance policy but it doesn't hurt.

One may be able to eradicate a well equipped populace but subduing and profiting from one is horse of a different color.

Capability is far from always practical and to occupy and control without popular consent requires soft targets aka boots on the ground. There are also plenty of soft targets that are not military and damage that can be done and facilitated that isn't killing people necessarily at all.

For command and control, much (though far from all) of the technological advantage is negated and for commerce you need cooperation. Occupation is never total war, tanks and lighter armor roll, gunships patrol the near air with some top level air support. Awesome advantages but far from unchallengeable, especially when that is far from the usual point. Numbers and territory to cover are also serious issues, the logistics far more daunting than folks making these arguments pretend away with pictures of bombers and and drones, ignoring the reality of locking this country down or what using those pieces of equipment would do and the aftermath.

A heavily armed population must be killed or disarmed to be mastered and yoked.