Can We Stop Pretending It's About Tyranny?

I don't want to get too involved in the gun-control debate, because I don't actually know which side I support. Obviously fully-automatic weapons should be banned, as should high-capacity magazines, as the only thing they're good for is indiscriminate mass carnage. Aside from that, I don't have a strong degree of confidence in either side's claims.

I am intensely annoyed by one thing though - the occasional refrain by the pro-gun side that the 2nd Amendment is there to protect the American populace from a government-imposed tyranny. This is complete crap, everyone knows it, and yet it's still brought up sometimes.

Maybe in the day of muskets and cavalry charges this was true (maybe). But it's obviously absurd to claim that now. Small-caliber handguns cannot compete with a modern military force in any way. A military force can field tanks, long-range artillery, attack helicopters, and unmanned drones. And (aside from the drones) that's all ancient technology. To actually resist a military incursion the 2nd Amendment would have to allow private citizens to own heavy ordnance and high-explosives at the minimum. Every successful modern resistance has been supplied and/or supported by a foreign nation.

No one believes that the 2nd Amendment SHOULD allow those things. So it's not about stopping a domestic tyranny. Stop pretending it is.