The biggest danger to the establishment is a pissed off citizenry that is armed and is willing to use them. Witness the recent events in Dallas; one well-trained, motivated individual managed to shoot 11 police officers by using those tactics he learned at the hands of other government agents, and honed in the crucible of war. Disagree with his motives if you will, but for a brief instant, the illusory nature of the state's authority was revealed.
The response by the police was telling. By sending in a drone and eliminating the shooter, the Dallas PD sent two messages; one intentional and one unintentional. The intentional message was pretty straightforward, "Mess with us and we will make an example out of you with overwhelming force."
The unintentional message was quite the opposite, "Holy shit! If these people get the idea that they can get at us, we are deader than Hillary Clinton's twat!"
The single most important element of state control is the perception that they are in control. Uniformed police, state surveillance, all of the political theater that is on C-Spam is all geared to give the impression that 'they' are in control. Yet, one half-wit armed with a 50-year-old rifle brought an entire police department to an operational screeching halt.
Even a cursory examination of history is replete with examples of the mayhem caused by a small number of armed citizens who had a grievance against the powers that be.
Extrapolate that to a half-million halfwits with cheap, mass-produced firearms.
Now imagine a half-million intelligent, skilled, motivated and pissed-off people that have decided enough is enough, and you begin to understand what keeps politicians awake at night. For, if they step across that imaginary line in the sand, it will be them that the masses hunt.
Bring it to a personal level; armed with blade or bludgeon, how many opponents would you be able to dispatch before succumbing to the weight of numbers? In a crowded bar, I suspect a half dozen. With the advantage of being on home turf with an intimate knowledge of the terrain, I suspect the number would soar well into the double digits. Throw a handgun, that you have learned to use well, into the equation and we could top the century mark.
Even fear won't straighten them up. They'll just double down with frantic gun control initiatives.
The "Woman" (it's not the 'Man' anymore) is coming for your guns. We must keep in mind that the Left will NEVER stop trying to take all the guns away from the American people. Leftists believe that private gun ownership is nothing but a dangerous nuisance on all sorts of levels. When Leftists talk about "common sense gun laws" they mean it is "common sense" to them that nobody should be allowed to own a gun. As self-styled revolutionaries Leftists don't see any sense at all in allowing their political opponents (Conservative whites) to posses arms. Consequently the Left's gun control proposals, at federal, state and municipal levels, focus on restricting the ability of law-abiding white people to purchase and own firearms. We already have sufficient laws on the books to permit the government to imprison any and all criminals who use firearms in the commission of a crime for up to ten years per offense. However, the Leftists in control of our criminal justice system choose NOT to enforce these gun laws because they would arrest too many minority offenders if they did. And that bothers them. A lot! Google the Great White Defendant. The Left has never been at all concerned about suppressing common crime; rather the Left IS concerned with destroying their political opponents. Fortunately for us the gun rights lobby is one of the only two activist movements within the overall Conservative political movement (Pro-Life being the other) and has pushed back very effectively against gun control. Without the NRA, and other gun rights organizations, we Americans would have long ago had most of our guns taken away from us already. Just like the Brits, Canadians and Australians. We would then be completely at the mercy of the criminal element in our country. It has became abundantly clear that the police and the courts are no longer willing or able to protect law-abiding citizens from criminal predation. The Left will never cease working to outlaw all private gun ownership. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance!
The biggest mistake both sides make is that we will never solve the greatest problems that humanity deals with, you cannot, will not, legislate morality, greed, hate, and other vices, it goes against human nature, we all see the world different. We will fall and rebuild, the cycle will start again.