"When we, in our time, in a debate about gun rights, start to talk about overthrowing the government, we come off like a bunch of nut-cases, and thereby play into the hands of the gun-grabbing enemy."
So we cede a basic truth about the founding of the country to appease to people who are going to think we are nuts for caring about 'icky guns' in the first place?
It never should be dropped as a point of argument. There are better arguments to start out with to win people over, but once you're educating them, throwing out that fact will open their minds.
Thanks to a public school edumacation, no teachers ever explained the 2nd amendment or BOR as a listing of basic human rights. It wasn't until I heard Walter E Williams reciting the true purpose of the 2nd Amendment (the radical one) that my eyes were opened to everything.
The phraseology of "overthrowing the government" carries with it severe connotations of illegitimacy. Better perhaps would be "overthrowing any tyrants who might try to subvert the legitimate government".