There's credible evidence to support the premise the Second Amendment was made legal to ratify the behavior of militias which were enforcing slavery, specifically in Virginia. (Truthout: The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery)
In many ways, it still does the same thing.
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To believe that, one would have to ignore the fact that Rhode Island was one of only two states that refused to ratify the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was passed. Rhode Island had banned slavery almost a century before.
The second amendment was part of the hedge against the central government. The state militias were always intended to be completely separate from the standing army. (The current status of the National Guard, which is today's embodiment of the state militias, is, in fact, unconstitutional.) The right of the people to keep and bear arms was in recognition of the need to always maintain an armed citizenry that had both the right and the ability to overthrow any government that became destructive of the rights of the people.
This one is up there with Aesop's Fables and Alice in Wonderland because the principle makes for good bed-time stories even though it's total absurdity to think any civilian weapons will have any effect against the military. Great idea when high-tech was firing blunderbusses at each other but ridiculous redneck fantasy when high-tech is a drone bomb carrying a nuke. This one is as outmoded as starting fires by rubbing two Trump supporters together ... or maybe that's how to extinguish a fire. I can never keep that straight.
A better retort maybe to argue that the right to bear arms is limited to members of a well regulated militia.
As much a fairy tale as anything from Aesop.
The gangs of Knoxville already flaunt the fact that they can easily outgun the KPD. If they were to begin an uprising. It would be incredibly hard to stop without huge collateral damage.
And they are miniscule compared to Billy Bob and his buddies
Outgunning cops is one thing but you piss off the military and then they bring in the heavy kit. That AR-15 or Uzi, etc will be laughable in the face of that. As you say, the collateral damage would be staggering but there's nothing so bloody as a civil war anyway.
Definitely don't mess with Billy Bob's or gunners will be turning out at Battalion strength!
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