Quote:
Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45
If Britain, US, etc, wanted to violently overthrow a government, we would ironically have to use terrorist-like tactics of blowing up shit, disrupting the economy, and innocent people would have to die, it is unavoidable unfortunately. Guerrilla style warfare is the only way for a group of untrained citizens to defeat a formal army.
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It's not the only way.
Consider how Marcos was chased out of the Philippines by massive, but peaceful, protests.
Consider the "Velvet revolution" that brought down the communists in Eastern Europe.
But of course, consider also the failed attempt at Tiananmen Square, the Prague spring, etc.
Peaceful mass demonstrations can
sometimes overthrow an entrenched government, if (1) the protest is huge and (2) the police and military lack the ruthlessness to suppress it by massacring unarmed civilians of their own country.
In the case of Britain, I believe (on the grounds of having watched
The Bill lots
) that (2) is pretty likely. There is such a strong tradition of democracy that if the government did attempt to perpetuate itself, many police and military personnel would refuse to use deadly force against mass protests, especially if there were other authority figures (the judiciary, royals, clergy, etc etc) supporting the protests.
The chance that civilian-owned guns may be needed to defend democracy must be balanced against both the risk that civilian-owned guns may be used (by a minority) to overthrow democracy, and the certainty that more guns will mean more gun deaths. In Britain, the need seems pretty low.