It seems worth noting that FDR’s administration made the ownership of gold by U.S. private citizens illegal, except for cases in which the gold could be proven to be a family heirloom. (Look up his executive order 6102 of 1933, based on a 1917 law restricting trade with enemies of the U.S.)

As has been pointed out by writers far better than I, many governments have made ownership of firearms by law-abiding citizens a crime, then proceeded to murder those citizens. In the 20th century, about as many people were murdered by their own governments – because they were unable to resist – as were killed by aggression from outside their own countries.

Again, it is worth studying the history of Germany and the Soviet Union to note the patterns of behavior of a repressive government toward its subjects, so as to be able to recognize them unfolding around you.

Anyone remember Sadegh Gobtzadeh, the primary spokesman for the new Islamic Revolutionary Government of Iran during the imprisonment of American Hostages in 1979? For years he’d been an admiring assistant of Ayutollah Ruhollah Khomeini during his exile in Paris, and served as acting Foreign Minister for the new revolutionary government. At some point, he realized that the Ayutollah he’d worshipped was helping impose a regime on Iran that was vastly more brutal to Iranians than the Shah and his secret police had ever been. He was executed by a firing squad after he became disillusioned, and was tortured into confessions of conspiracy by the government he’d helped to install. (Of course the whole story is complicated…)