If my book accomplishes anything, I want people to think about that oath, and what it means.
And of course, I want to send a clear warning to the polidiots. I don't want some future President, in the situation room, saying, "You mean, the real danger all along wasn't the assault rifles? It's the common, ordinary deer rifle?"
If we blunder and miscalculate our way that far, it will be very hard to get off the rapid slide to an out-of-control dirty war.
As a proponent of the tragic view of human nature, I cannot come to any other conclusion that that slide into the dark side is an all-too-likely probability. Consider the hate spewing from the Left, and the sheer murderous quality of their visceral hatred of everything this country used to stand for, and for people like you and me. Consider the likes of Hillary Clinton in the highest office in the land - and the machinery that she would put into motion.
Here in the good old USA, it's going to be the equivalent Germans and Jews, Turks and Armenians all over again, but with a ferocity that would make even the most savage machete-wielder in the darkest heart of Africa go pale. And that's because, unlike the Jews and the Armenians, we'll fight back. Whether we've been trained by Uncle Sam, or by those who used to work for Uncle Sam (as we were), there are enough of us who won't go quietly into that dark night. We've got the will, the motiviation and the training to make it very interesting indeed.
Like those in your novel, some may have trouble understanding when it's time to take to the field. Some will have no trouble at all, and will have prepared for it for years. The lessons of history are there for anyone who chooses to see them.