First off Street Saint, are you deliberately out to offend people? Because that's not the most polite way to start a discussion with someone.
"gun home owners suicide rates are 5 times larger than non gun home owners and they are also 3 times more the victims of homicide..."
The author of that study, Arthur Kellerman, was funded by the anti-gun "Joyce Foundation". He twisted homicide numbers using Seattle-area gang violence figures. Once you control for "subject was/was not a drug-dealing felon with an illegal gun", his results disappear. This nonsense was so bad my freshman statistics teacher used it as an example of abusing math to make propaganda.
The liberal forum Democratic Underground has a great collection of research analyzing that study and others. Check these out: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x334436
[size=10]"Kellermann's work is merely the most egregious example of the genre. After his 1986 study was thoroughly savaged, he insulated himself from criticism in his 1993 study ("Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home") by refusing to share his research data. What is even more remarkable is that the NEJM published the study, even though Kellermann had not deposited his research data with the journal. In other words, neither the journal nor its peer reviewers were in a position to verify that the study's findings were actually supported by any data, let alone valid data, and yet they approved it for publication anyway."[/h]
There's
also this in a book by award-winning criminologist Gary Kleck, but it's a bit dense for people without some background knowledge.
Now, the revolution argument. If you want to hear from "compitant, non-paranoia inducing parties", how about the guys who wrote our constitution?
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were the main writers of the Federalist Papers, a series of opinion pieces written in favour of the new system. Madison was one of the main writers of both the constitution, and was also the creator of the second amendment, although he was (justifiably) skeptical of the efficacy of an enumerated bill of rights.
Several issues of the Federalist Papers directly address the 2nd amendment. Although the entire series is mandatory reading for any discussion of constitutional law, these are the most important for the current subject:
Number 29 (Hamilton)
Number 46 (Madison)
I'll only give one quote, because this post is already too long. But if an armed citizenry is a tinfoil hat idea, then the founders of our country and the writers of our highest law were crazy conspiracy theorists:
[size=10]Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops.[/h]
As for practicality, this still holds true today. The entire US army was stretched to the limit occupying Iraq, and the US has eleven or twelve times the population. Every counterinsurgency expert knows that technology plays a less important role than the numbers and sentiment of the population, so the "nukes and drones beat rifles" argument falls flat.
For further information about popular warfare, consult [size=10](pdf)[/h] Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith's
translation of Mao Zedong’s On "Guerrilla War".
Or General Petraeus' [size=10](pdf)[/h]
Field Manual 3-24 on Counterinsurgency.
Anything else you'd like to know, just ask.