No Guns, No Freedom

The only reason Egypt is still a dictatorship today is that the Egyptian population is mostly disarmed.

using what's available

Citizens who have formed themselves into militias to defend their neighbourhoods have had to arm themselves with sticks and knives due to the shortage of weapons.

This tells you something important about a closed society vs a free society. If Egyptians had been armed as much as, say, Israelis, Hosni Mubarak would be long gone.

In the West, we take so much for granted. We assume society will survive any stress, any rupture. But social order is more fragile than it looks. And the solution to dictatorial policies more fraught with terror.

An armed society is hard to control by force. That's why Mubarak won't let Egyptians own weapons.

Which makes you wonder why the Canadian government is so keen on removing weapons from the public in Canada.