My feelings about gun rights. I think Nick would entertain these ideas if I explained them well enough.

There's 2 separate tasks we are trying to accomplish with gun ownership:
1) Self defense
2) Protection against a rogue government.
These are separate problems, with separate solutions. You can optimize gun laws for self-defense, thereby minimizing harm. However, this would limit gun ownership to such a degree that the population is defenseless against the government.

That's why, in my opinon, the responsibility for defense against the government is better accomplished by militias. Every single town and city in the US should have a well regulated militia. It gives young men a purpose, serves as a permanent right wing presence in the town, and it stockpiles enough weapons, and trained men, to pose an actual threat against the federal government.

The right to participate in a militia should be enshrined by the Supreme Court, and these militias should have access to heavy duty weapons that can realistically oppose the government.
However, the right of every single yahoo to own an AR-15 should be curtailed to some extent. People should be allowed to possess them, but only through background checks and licenses.

Reasons why this is a good idea:
-- Your military power scales in organization. 100 organized men outperforms 100,000 disorganized men. That's why an orgnized, trained militia is super powerful and effective.
-- These militias can network together to effectively expel the feds from entire regions of the country, which could be necessary in a dark future.
-- The militias nucleate a community, and form a real "government in waiting" ready to step into power at a moment's notice. Communities will be far less dependent on the federal regime.
-- These militias are a hierarchy where ambitious young men can prove themselves and rise the ranks. You will get future resistance leaders out of this.