Can you tell me of on instance in history, where an armed people were overtaken by their own Tyrannical government?
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States" (Noah Webster in `An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution', 1787, a pamphlet aimed at swaying Pennsylvania toward ratification, in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, at 56(New York, 1888))
I suppose that if a dictator stepped forward today in the U.S. ;that the military would be split. I suspect that the majority of the armed people would stand with the military that was in opposition to the overthrow of our Republic.