> The root of the issue is that the government does not trust its citizenry to follow the law without Big Brother watching.

People did fly two planes into the World Trade Center. That was a thing that happened. Along with all the regular mass shootings, all the way up to Vegas.

> That in and of itself is a symptom of a larger grave political crisis in America: the decay of the state's political legitimacy.

Well, only because people are actively chiselling away at it because they think they will be able to loot the ruins.