I have found the conversation, and all y’all’s contributions, interesting and enlightening.
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Mister Smith brings up a valid point. I was in China in 1989 when Tienanmen happened - different city.
Something most people are not aware of, most of the tanks and soldiers that attacked the protesters were military troops brought up from Shanghai. They were afraid the troops stationed in Beijing, which most were from that area (soldier’s don’t move around as much as US soldiers do) would be hesitant to fire on friends and family or other other soldiers they were with. By bringing in outsiders this avoided that problem.
I can’t speak to the current military, but I seriously and strongly doubt it has changed, but the military would not turn and support a repressive regime. Just as in the American Civil War, people left the Union Army to support their State, I think many many Troops would support the population. Before they left they could sabotage a lot of equipment. High tech equipment is easy to do that to.
A million snipers would be hell to deal with. Also, there are a lot of vets out there - they aren’t all untrained civilians. A “very well organized” militia is foreseeable.
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I read somewhere recently that there are ~1.3 million people in the US active military and an additional 800,000 in reserves. There are over 325 million people in the US, and between 10% and 50% of US households own guns (estimates vary wildly, depending on what agenda is being pushed). Even at the 10% number there are more than 15 times (325M x 10% = 32.5M / 2.1M = 15.47) the number of gun owners (32.5M) than there are military personnel (2.1M).
Even with zero disertions, the US military would have a very, very difficult time holding down the US citizenry, if push came to shove.
Edit to add: Only about 35% of the US military serve in “combat” positions. the other 65% are in support or command positions. That leaves about 735,000 “shooters”.
I’m sure that certain other nations that would jump at the chance to supply advanced weaponry to an armed insurgency destabilizing the USA as well. Much like French aid in the Revolution, that could shift the balance of power substantially.
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The protesting students had no guns either.
It seems like they were trying to effect a revolution(and failed) in the manner of what happened in the Philippines in 1986 wherein the then current President was air lifted to Hawaii by the US.
A lot of shoes were left behind, his wife was devastated.
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FWIW,
The family is back in power in their home province. The son is currently a senator and ran for VP in the last election in 2016(almost won).
If you don’t believe in conspiracy theories, you will, newer school books have been revised to tell a rosier picture about the deposed president than what actually transpired; much to the consternation of the activist who participated in his removal.
History has been revised in less than 3 generations.
Of course, the left does nothing about it, choosing instead to focus on more “entertaining” issues like the current president’s method of crime fighting and attitude towards China.
It’s a screwed up system with politicians grandstanding and general populace suffering from public funds being pocketed rather than going where they ought to be.
P.S. i saw a publication on the newstand the other day. The World’s Most Notorious Dictators by Athlon Publishing.
He was page 50, the shoe collection and wife(still alive) on page 52.
How much money did they supposedly plunder?
Here’s another rabbit hole:
http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Philippines/sub5_6b/entry-3845.html
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China’s got a bigger army and is now ruled by what is effectively an emperor out to own a good chunk of Southeast Asia.
They’ve built up an island(whole island is now a military base with airstrip) in contested territory that belongs to the Philippines per international tribunal.
The two words I was referring to are ‘well’ and ‘regulated’. Not militia.
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When the 2nd amendment was written, “well regulated” meant well trained.
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Per link I provided (and from other independent sources if you wish to investigate for yourself for any reason), Common usage of phrase “well regulated”, at the time of the writing, was synonymous with “well working”, for example “Blevins Gently Used Well Regulated Timepieces” might be where someone might go to buy a decent pocket watch"
NB: Also at the time. timepiece was synonymous with pocket watch.
Point noted on the possibility of definition deltas between the 1770’s and today. My philosophy on life is ‘the World is what you make it’. I suppose I could live in a continual state of hyper vigilance, suspicious of overthrowing overlords ever present at the water’s edge. However, I am far too pragmatic to try and convince myself that all the handgun preparation in the world would amount to anything more than a hill of beans against Sat.-Nav. drones with hellfire misses.
If it comes down to hand-to-hand combat, I reckon I’ll have plenty of time to train sufficiently. And if there’s no time to train for some hypothetical onslaught, then it means I’m probably already dead…likely from something far, far above the range of my ‘handgun’.
Until then, more drinks for everybody!
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Can’t have the two without the one. 
“Well Trained” would be an astronomically greater standard than the current training standard.
I don’t even want to count the number of hours I spent learning my M16 before I was allowed to be “qualified” to use it.
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I think you meant gastronomically. That would make mores sense in this context.
History shows that an armed population is a very good thing. Helps prevent stupid things like “ethnic cleansing”, etc. Guessing this isn’t covered in the “progressive” history classes taught in the public schools for the last 20+ years.
Before you go a clamoring for us to be like them (i.e. other countries), you should consider what they have been through. Those who don’t study/learn from history are condemned/damned to repeat it.
If you were born a city slicker, raised by city slickers you just might be clueless about the bigger picture concerning gun issues. Indeed possibly stupid clueless.
Setting fire to the “rabbit whole”.
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I’m with you on this one. I remember reading some time back that while the “no gun” thing used to work well for Great Britain, as neither criminals nor citizens tended to have guns, that is no longer true. It’s becoming easier and easier for criminals to get guns, so it’s just the citizens that are unarmed. And, remember – when seconds count, the police are minutes away…
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I would also submit that other countries with different firearms crime statistics have markedly different underlying societies, and their crime stats can’t just be magicked into existence here with legislation solely around the subject of firearms.
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People should read up on what history according to China & Taiwan is.
And the beneficial effects of caffeine while civilly discussing how easy it will be to deal with those (armed) colonists.
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