I'm British, and I find it really weird that Americans apparently live in abject terror of the world around them. The notion that anyone in Britain would ever need a deadly weapon to defend themselves is completely alien here. We just ... don't.
I wouldn't want to be in the tank killing civilians because "I was following orders" won't work when all is said and done.
My understanding is that guns are not the main source of resistance against tyranny. It is the fact that an economy as complex as ours requires broad participation by many people with specialized skills. A dictator can't run the economy simply by mining blood diamonds or crude oil here. I imagine you need the backing of at least twenty percent of the population.
Let's also not forget that our country got its start by a scrappy group of farmers and tradesmen armed only with muskets and flintlock pistols that defeated the greatest world power at the time.
I'm American, and Your Country is The Sole reason why we will Not give Up our right to defend ourselves against any Government--And most Especially our own. We Just... Won't.
A quick look around the Globe at Nations that Enslave and/or Torture their Citizens because they can, because the peope are unarmed--is really the only modern day reason we need to Never give them up.
Of course Not... but it Is the reason We never will be.
While that seems really inefficient to me as a Frenchperson, I understand that British people like it.
I’ve categorized this in the category of things that I’ve noticed but am not interested in enough to work toward the explanation, but if I ever learn it I’ll remark “hmm, that’s neat, I never knew that.”
Most of the state-owned "crown estates" land is open to the public.