chapotraphouse

What I've said before is that certainly yes any revolution requires guns and knowing how to use guns. And communists/minorities/women in the USA probably should own guns if it's safe for them for a variety of reasons.

But there's definitely a type of US based socialist, who loved guns before they developed their left wings politics, and instead of doing any analysis or self criticism, just substitute "Shall not be infringed" with "under no pretext" as a replacement position. And Marxist-Leninists should oppose dogmatism and just firing off cliched quotes. Instead looking at the material conditions on the ground. Both Marx's quote and this quote by Lenin is definitely good advice, but also very basic of course a revolution needs guns, but they're also not a binding edict that applies to all time before, during and after a revolution.

I tend to think Mao hits the nail on the head with "Political power grows from the barrel of a gun". The capacity to do violence is political power. In the USA the 2nd amendment gives this political power to millions of petit bourgeoises and reactionaries. It's only an accident when communists or minorities get a small slice of this power (which we see the state will time and again stamp out when it feels it needs to). That isn't to say US communists shouldn't utilize this accident, they definitely should, but as a transient and temporary thing. Use the 2nd amendment to arm and then when in power remove the 2nd amendment and it's protections for reactionaries.