My dive into the myth that civilian gun ownership prevents tyranny, and the lack of any real correlation between gun ownership and democracy: thinkprogress.org/civilian-guns-… 
Looking at data from @SmallArmsSurvey and numbers from Freedom House over the past decade, the lack of a relationship between civilian gun ownership and democratization is clear:
(For stat folks, the Spearman correlation for the relationship was calculated at only 0.08.)
Even if we want to limit our data set to countries that have undergone attempted/successful revolutions/overthrow over the past decade, the relationship between gun ownership and democratization is bunk:
The myth that civilian gun ownership can prevent tyranny is understandable, and is baked into the story Americans, and Texans, tell themselves.
But it's just that: a myth. Unsupported by data. Unsupported by reality.
But it's just that: a myth. Unsupported by data. Unsupported by reality.
Coda: There's an entire industry of fake quotes created to sate the "guns prevent tyranny" crowd, and they're already filling up my inbox. (No Japanese admiral ever said this.)
Among the current dictatorships that have some of the highest rates of civilian gun ownership in the world: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. Other non-democracies with high rates of civilian gun ownership: Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar.
ICYMI
