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Protester shot in chest by live police round during Hong Kong protests

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628 points nodea2345 | 1 comments | 01 Oct 19 11:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.192s | source
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nvahalik ◴[01 Oct 19 13:30 UTC] No.21125093[source]▶
> Imagine if the US suddenly had a dictator

This is why we have the second amendment. And the constitution as the thing to which office-holders swear allegiance to rather than to "the party" or "the president".

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swarnie_[dead post] ◴[01 Oct 19 13:34 UTC] No.21125127[source]▶
Non-American here, i never really understood your second amendment or how you cling to it in the modern age.

What are a couple of rednecks with assault rifles (which arguably they shouldn't be able to purchase anyway) going to do against semi-autonomy kill droids being flown from a bunker in the desert?

LandR ◴[01 Oct 19 14:32 UTC] No.21125696[source]▶
Not American, but I think maybe the point is the minute the government has to resort to taking up arms, or using the military against it's own people then it has already lost. At that point the country is effectively done, it's a failed state.
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1. jbattle ◴[01 Oct 19 15:03 UTC] No.21126075[source]▶
Abstractly speaking, this represents a sort of a mutually-assured-destruction dynamic between the government and the governed, forcing each to compromise with the other.

As an American, the thought of an actual armed uprising feels so outlandish in 2019 that I'm pretty certain that no one in government takes it seriously (c.f. the steady erosion of civil liberties)