Talk of gun control usually focuses on the paranoia and extremism of gun proponents, but the imagery all over this thread of confrontations between police and gun-toting "patriots" brings another angle to mind:

Maybe the increasing militarization of the civilian police forces in the US isn't just what we assume is the usual governmental overreach and another aspect of the surveillance state or maybe creeping fascism or whatever...

But the rhetoric of confrontation suggests this: American police face the certainty of more confrontations with more heavily-armed and heavily-paranoid Americans than ever before. They hear the overheated anti-government rhetoric, they see their comrades murdered and shrouded with the Gadsden flag, they saw the snipers taking a bead on Federal agents at the Cliven Bundy hoedown, they hear the incessant calls for guns everywhere as our only hope for safety. They know which way the wind's blowing.

If you were a cop, wouldn't recent events and recent rhetoric make you more than a little afraid to knock on any door? Doesn't the militarization of the police reflect the real threat these second amendment extremists pose to the country?