I don't like the word trust in this context, Chris. The government isn't a group sitting out there waiting for us to blink so it can come and get us. We are the government. It works as long as we keep an eye on it. If you think the government is the enemy, take a look at countries where there is no functioning government. What kind of a life could you have there, even if you had an arsenal--or a private militia? Ask someone from Lebanon.
Thinking about Mirai and her family, and Kristi's family (who actually were interned--Mrs. Yamaguchi was born in a camp): the Issei and Nisei didn't have their guns taken away. They had their rights taken away by law. There were years of restrictive immigration laws, and then during the War, California and other states (interestingly, not Hawaii) rounded up Japanese-Americans under the authority of a new law, Executive Order 9066. If the Japanese-Americans had stood up with arms, the army would have come in and mowed them down. Also, I am sorry to say, most of the country did not leap to their defense. In fact, most of the country seems to supported rounding them up, because people in those days were scared and suspicious after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and they were also a lot more ignorant about diversity than we are today. (This shows that we have progressed, which is good news.) That's why I think that this hot-button issue isn't a useful argument in this case.
As for Jews during that time, the difference between America and Europe wasn't the fact that Jews in America were armed and Jews in Europe were not. I am Jewish, and my family was the classic immigrant family, growing up in urban tenements. My grandfather was even a tailor. Their guns were not taken away. They didn't have guns. They didn't even have pets. They had food for the next day. They had books, in English, Hebrew, maybe Russian, and Yiddish, and (because learning was the way to success) in French, German, and Latin. It wasn't guns that protected them. It was laws. By contrast, the laws in Europe in 1941 were the Nuremberg laws. European Jews with guns fought, in places like Warsaw and Vilna, but when things come to the point of hiding in ruined buildings and firing on the greatest army in Europe, the odds will not favor the freedom fighters. Most of them died with their guns in their hands. I honor them in memory--I may have been related to some of them--but I would far rather they had had the law on their side, not an extra rifle, or even a rocket launcher.
Government in a democratic country isn't evil. It's inefficient. It's especially inefficient in a country with 300 million people who all disagree with one another. There are people who want to get richer than other people, who manipulate the laws in their favor if they're not closely watched. There are of course criminals. If you feel safer with a supply of guns in your home, be my guest. But I don't think any amount of armaments will protect you against "the government." As you know, they also have an air force.
The Second Amendment isn't going to be removed from the Constitution. Guns are part of American history and consciousness. But are we not to be allowed to ask questions about regulating gun ownership? Of course, we need to think about how we treat the mentally ill, and how violence is used for fun in movies and video games. But we do need to talk about the easy availability of guns.
