Moreover, a technological population has more potential weapons at its disposal than just the small arms its individuals have at hand. A simplistic example is the case of the West Virginia State Guard, back in the ‘80’s. The unit, knowing itself to be part of the legal State Militia, believed that the laws permitted itself to obtain and maintain heavy weapons, and so they obtained 3 M24 light tanks and a 75mm mountain howitzer. All had been ‘demilitarized,’ but the State Guardsmen included machinists, who put them back in working order. They then secured these privately owned but State Militia dedicated ordinance items at State NG Armories. Where they were discovered by state and Federal officials, to their horror.
Said authorities, since the State Guardsmen had neglected to obtain anyone's authorization to reactivate these weapons, confiscated them. Now imagine that these had not been trusting and law-abiding citizens, but fed-up individuals feeling oppressed by the recurring petty tyrannies of a government aiming to bring them to a state of subjection and slavery.
You would never have them in the quantities neccessary to turn the tide, and those that you did have would quickly be eliminated. Remember, the taliban used to have tanks and heavy artillery, thats gone now, because its impossible to utilise and conceal them against a western army...
It would have been a story that warmed the hearts of many American boys.