YS > allowing people access to weapons does absolutely bupkis in terms of arming them against evil governments.
This is not true. Occupying armies have hard time dealing with population with weapons. To quote Chofetz Chaim out of context, he writes (in 1920s Poland, neighboring USSR) asking everyone to organize some learning in his town: when a country sees that they are weaker than a potential aggressor, they call on everyone to take a gun … Not a direct comparison, but look at Afghanistan with fighting culture that helped them keeping outsiders out. Having guns in every window will absolutely make keeping control over a modern city difficult.