>Better thought: Do you think a completely unarmed populace is a better idea given how bad police abuse their power?
Well, yes, I do.
The US is heavily armed. The US has a lot of poorly trained, unskilled, abusive police officers.
Gun ownership hasn't made US police any better. If anything it's made them far more lethal - one reason given (by both pro- and anti- gun advocates) for the shocking numbers of people shot and killed by US police each year is the presence of guns in the population.
When a police officer abuses their power I can grind through it, or I can pull a gun and get shot. In most cases getting shot is the worse outcome.
Better thought: Do you think a completely unarmed populace is a better idea given how bad police abuse their power?