About that bigger guns thing. The government CAN'T nuke it's own people. Most of the military personnel would defect and join - or start - a rebellion the minute they did. Most of them have mothers, and most of their mothers live here, so they're not going to like mothers being nuked.

As to ordinary sized guns, rather than the big ones, American civilians have a LOT more of them than the US military. More than all the military forces of the whole world combined, in fact. Every time the Pentagon runs a simulation of a rebellion against the government, the government loses. It's never even close, actually. What happens in their tabletop exercises is that regional warlords cut ground transport at chokepoints, like the Mississippi, and the USG is reduced to air transport, and cannot project force on the ground. Bombing campaigns can't take clay. The Houthis proved that last year.

They also proved that hordes of drones made of sticks, string, and hand grenades make $1T carriers useless. One little dimple on the flight deck and that carrier is only a liability, incapable of projecting force. Decentralization FTW! Whatever the problem is, freedom is the solution.

Edit: freedom and guns, that is.