I have to add a point to the Revolutionary War discussion. The South gets no respect for its contribution. William Clinton and Nathaniel Greene are all but forgotten (Can you say Saratoga, got to love that it was an Irish sniper who picked off the English General and turned the tide of the Battle, One Can Make a Difference, if he can hit what he is aiming at). When the militias were playing tag in the forests during the Battle of Lexington, South Carolina took on and beat the British Navy when the Navy tried to take some of its fortresses. Oh and the folks in the Appalache had declared independence thirty years before our founding fathers, and when the British came in during the Revolutionary War with over a thousand soldiers, the settlers there formed up a hundred and fifty guys and kicked their teeth in and the British left with less than six hundred soldiers.
We after all had another victory over in South Carolina, that I now can't remember, that they used in "The Patriot" with the whole retreating Militia thing. Cornwalis didn't lose a single battle till he ended up in New York. And he went on to use the lessons he learned fighting us to subjugate India and help kill more than thirty million Indians, at least the Mongols built up something good and lasting.
Okay back to guns, AR-15s are fun, fun but expensive. And are the local hoodlums better armed in our country, yup. But when the good guys start shooting back with even just pistols, the bad guys tend to turn and run, just look on Youtube anytime you like. On a good day I can beat up three normal guys that are unarmed, I've had to do it in New Orleans once (granted my face looked awful for a month, and my ribs hurt like heck for a few months) but the second you start adding knives, pipes, and bricks to the mix. I'm not going to stand a chance.
So I'd rather go up against three guys armed with guns, with me having a gun myself, than taking on three guys bare-handed. Boxer fractures take forever to heal it feels like (my bench dropped twenty pounds and I couldn't curl bells heavier than sixty pounds). Three bad guys come walking up on me with guns drawn and looking to do wrong, I'll be sending no less than six bullets there way.