As someone from outside US but who spent some time in LA can't really believe anyone ever took those "second amendment" guys at face value.
It was always the most obvious cover for "say or do something we don't like and we shot you". The current US administration policies were always their end game.
The logical conclusion, yes. I hope we don't need to get to that point.
The current reality is that the people who say this often say it to those they know don't have guns themselves to fire back with. Bullies, to put it in the simplest terms. They only take easy targets.
In a game-theory-prisoner-dilemma kind of situation, yeah, maybe. In the real world, those guys were always sure to point their to guns to those they knew very obviously couldn't retaliate back. And I'm not strictly talking about minorities, by the way. Simply, those who weren't part of their circle had a rough time and the police made very clear that they would act in their defense if anyone tried something funny.
I've only seen shit like this in sicily in the early 90s, when the mob controlled much of the big cities.
It was always the most obvious cover for "say or do something we don't like and we shot you". The current US administration policies were always their end game.