To add on to what @pivot_root@lemmy.world and @Beldarofremulak@discuss.online said, the primary use-case for personal firearms in the US outside of hobby/hunting in day-to-day is self-defense, and as a last resort.
Even with a concealed carry permit, most states' concealed carry laws state that you can only use your weapon if you have no method of retreat, and retreat should always be the first option. (Rightly so.)
Second problem that this seething pile of shit administration has created, is even if you were cornered, no way out, and used a gun to defend yourself, as soon as they say (real, fake, made up, or retroactively) "oh that was a Federal agent" you're now looking at having to deal with the Federal "justice" system, which is currently a big lying pile of shit that does whatever it wants with no regard for any life. (State and local laws are, for the most part, still functioning correctly.)
So basically, a death-and/or-El-Salvador concentration camp sentence for the person-that-would-be-helping.
Signing up as a rogue citizen to defend others, as a firearm owner, is at minimum legal fees, possible loss of firearms, possible jail time, or these days, possible disappearing.
You basically have to be in a mental state of writing off your own life to do such an act. If we are at that point, we're probably in civil war.
There's not cowboy justice in modern America, most of the time, surprisingly. Only Federal cowboy injustice.
Closest that could be maybe done is if a group of armed citizens in a state where open-carry is legal set up groups to protect those being targeted by the Nazis just outside the legal land boundary of the courts. Specifically because officers (read: thugs) are trained to shoot first and ask questions later. You'd need a mass of armed citizens, not touching their firearms, so the thugs know they're outnumbered and no matter how tiny-penis-brain they are, they know they'll probably come out dead if they escalate. Still very risky, could easily escalate as the thugs are also trained to purposely aggravate citizens so the citizens will make a mistake and the thugs can "apply the law" (do whatever they want with no consequences) as they see fit. This would be the tipping point Mango Mussolini wants to declare Martial Law across the US, and then we're back to the civil war thing. All the rules change at that point, and the perceived "authority" that the ICE cowards think they have disappears, but we're also looking at massive loss of life, no matter how it plays out. Unlike the Nazis, most Americans value life.
It sucks, right? When a majority of a country follows its laws, but they're dealing with human trash in power that can mutate it at-will with almost god-mode powers, it becomes infinitely more complex to save the People and Democracy. They've done a good job stacking the deck in favor of Tyranny.
