I'm not sure if it's a question of how civilized people are, but I get the feeling that the key reason why a certain number of people do not want Gun Control in the US, is precisely because they want to have access to weapons and resist, should the Federal Government turn tyrannic one day.
Yeah I've heard this explanation as well. It calls to mind Schneier's admonition against "movie plot threats". The reason to have firearms is not to counter any specific threat. We arm ourselves, rather, in order to respond effectively to a wide variety of potential situations. Among those, the "rogue federal government" threat isn't more than a rounding error, in the USA, for the foreseeable future.
