the us government is not going to arbitrarily imprison its citizens.  what happened in ww II was a paranoid president who felt that Japanese americans  would be traitors and attack the us.  but there was no need for guns for the Japanese americans to defend themselves.  if so, the situation might have been very devastating and many people injured and killed.  so it is very silly to say that guns are needed primarily to defend against an oppressive government in today's environment.  what happened between the American colonists and the british was a very different situation.  the british did not want to arbitrarily take over the colonists, they wanted to tax them.  the colonists felt that this was unfair, so they revolted.  hence, it was the colonists who started the violence.  in hindsight this was likely a good idea, but at the time it was viewed as a rebellion by the colonists against its mother country, England.