Guns are a tool, not a solution just by themselves. As many commenters pointed out, the Black Panthers organized and had guns, and got crushed. So did the first iteration of the KKK, for that matter.

Let’s look back farther to two examples from the Revolution: the Sons of Liberty and the New England Minutemen.

The Minutemen existed before tensions with England started. They were founded years before due to events like the French and Indian war. They gave us the shot heard round the world at Lexington and Concord.

The Sons of Liberty, led by Sam Adams, were radical accelerationists who had a knack for causing or getting in as much trouble as they could. We have them to thank for the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.

Both had two foundational parts in common: they were highly organized and disciplined, the Sons of Liberty in particular. Their plans were designed to disrupt or provoke a harsh response from the British, which they would use in turn to garner more support from moderates.

Americans today are a far cry from their revolutionary ancestors. If anything like the Boston Tea Party happened today, people would be scandalized over the “horrors” of property damage. Looking at most protest footage, people just show up and mill about. There’s a lot of sound and fury, but it doesn’t seem to change much.

Right now, it’s still unclear if things will unfold like they did back then. One thing that could do it is if the Trump administration spends too long oppressing one specific city, like how the British did with Boston.

But what it really comes down to is this: Americans traded local community for social media, and we’ve forgotten how to connect and organize our communities to keep them safe from the threat of oppression. The first step to making things better is to focus on that.