And I share your concern about the slippery slope we're on. My big concern is that far too many Muricans are giving up their rights owing to a lack of sophistication on their part.
Freedom of assembly, speech, etc. is clearly far more important than the right of private ownership of firearms (otherwise that private ownership right *would* be a Constitutional right). Yet, for all too many Muricans, owning guns is the single right they are most concerned about. And they're letting the rest slide.
The disinformation is as thick in the US of A now as it was in the USSR in the '60s. The Bushes, Ashcrofts, Cheneys, et. al. continue to "scare" us with new threats so that our eye never focuses on the ball. More is the pity that this strategy is working so well. <sigh>