Mr. Maloney:
I do not know from whence you acquired your knowledge base, but I have spent a good deal of my life studying and developing Light Infantry tactics and capabilities, both as a paid employee of my Uncle Samuel and in various academic pursuits.
A reasonable analog to examine is the war between Slovenia and the Yugoslav Federal Army, the Croats against the Yugoslav Federal Army.
Those conflicts were fought by light infantry - citizen soldiers, against the mostly Serb central govt. They were sucessful, although at significant cost.
Light infantry, which is what "citizen-soldiers" are, can be successful on the modern battlefield if they are motivated - and defending your home is an excellent motivator. Also, it must be pointed out that in civil conflicts, even among the most repressive governments ( Husseins Baathists excepted) there is generally a hesitation to use extreme measures such as carpet bombing, NBC, and MLRS or systemns of a similar nature, as such cause a total breech between the people and the government.
Waco is not an analog. It was not open warfare, nor declared combat. It was a forcible arrest gone awry after the responsible agency stupidly and incompetantly grandstanded for the Congress and the TV cameras. 50 religious zealots surrounded by about 1000 cops.
Your set-up of a straw man, which is then conveniently knocked down, is not very instructive.
The "Second Amendment" rebellion is an extremely unlikely scenario, and would be the end result of a gross breakdown of the American civic polity and Constituional authority. None the less, it is the purpose for which the Founders envisioned the amendment, and such a rebellion against tyranny certainly is more likely of success if the citizens have arms than if they do not. I also posit that 100,000 armed men in the streets would give any government, no matter how odious, pause. If this were NOT the case, dictatorships world wide would not have as their first agenda item upon accession to power : "collect all the guns".
Simply because the Second Amendment scenario is unlikely, and possibly unlikely of success, it is no less true that the Founders envisioned an armed populace as the last resort against tyranny.
Regards
GKT
