[ChildOfThe60s]

I think that when we talk about the potential for a military enforced tyranny in the US, it is essential to consider not just the fact that we have a well armed populace. The logistics of militarily controlling an area as large as the US have to include stark geographic realities. It is BIG, very big. Terrain is very diverse. Huge amounts of non urban areas. We could have small armies of insurgents (that’s patriots) all over the place. The despots couldn’t support a standing army of sufficient numbers to hold much of the territory outside of major urban areas.

[ExSoldier]

I dunno about that. I know that in case of emergency there is an OPLAN to divide the country into seven military districts, each headed by a military governor with full arrest powers and a separate military force under his or her control. How effective they could be would be determined by the willingness of those forces to fire on citizens of the USA. But think of our very own resident author (Travis McGee) and his trilogy EFAD that dealt with almost exactly this scenario. What would be the potential for foreign intervention by UN forces or others? That's the real danger, IMO. YMMV.