Chapotraphouse

Walking around with guns wasn't what made them successful, it was building an actual connection to the people and working to build dual power structures to provide for them and to prove to them a better alternative system can exist, the arms came along as a necessity to protect from harassment in order to continue their programs.

You can't have people running around willy-nilly with guns, and you definitely don't want chief targets for state persecution going around willy-nilly in hot situations without a trained and disciplined force to do that willy-nilly running around.

Also money. You're gonna have people run around all day peacefully observing federal agents, they need to get paid because they're gonna become persona non gratas in the workplace the moment it gets leaked they're in a left-wing militia policing the streets.

the cops will murder you if they THINK you have a gun, even though its "legal" to have one

The police wasn't as militarized. SWAT didn't exist in its current form back then. SWAT was slowly developing as a domestic counterinsurgency apparatus after the Watts riots. One of the first real assignments of LAPD's SWAT was in fact engaging in a shootout with the LA branch of the BPP.

Even at their most militant, the BPP were mostly armed with pistols and shotguns. Those weapons wouldn't do shit vs your average ICE goon wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles.

I'll just point out things were a lot different then compared to now.

Cops back then didn't have body armor of any kind usually (kevlar was brand new and not widely available nor was it guaranteed to stop bullets from rifles as commonly carried by the panthers). They also usually had at best a pistol, maybe a shotgun in the car or trunk in some cases. They often patrolled alone or maybe two cops and might have encountered two panthers armed, not good odds for the cops that at least one if not both gets a funeral if they start shit.

Cops back then weren't as organized, as militarized. They couldn't call out a helicopter gunship, they didn't have surveillance drones doing overwatch. They couldn't scream on the horn and get 10 armed agents from several agencies there in 20 minutes as emergency back-up.

The US was openly trying to appear good compared to the USSR and was very determined not to do many if any massacres if they could help it because it made them look bad in their attempts to woo the non-aligned states.

Compare to now. These ICE types wear heavy modern body armor with plates that can stop rifle rounds. They receive military training, they operate in tactical squads. They carry automatic weapons. They have overwatch. They can call for and get SWAT multi-agency heavily armed back-up with even more automatic weapons and armored vehicles within 15 minutes in many cases.

They do not operate within a state that has a USSR it cares to try and compete against, it has no interest in trying to pretend it isn't somewhat racist nor does it care about shouting about maximalist liberal freedoms.

So there's less restraint, the opponents are more heavily armed, have body armor, have better military training, travel in numbers at all times, and are itching for an escalation that lets them use even more force and/or declare martial law.

The US of the 1960s and 1970s had a more serious risk of serious prolonged insurgency due to the social and economic upheaval of the era than now which they also had an interest on tamping down on and not feeding. The propaganda wasn't as good, we hadn't seen end of history yet with the USSR being illegally dissolved.

Because the pigs would murder you with impunity anyway.

People are doing cop-watch stuff with ICE. There's coordinated efforts to track and tail them when they leave and warn workers before they arrive. Adding guns to that process is a big escalation and they will escalate in return. For most of those organizers, escalation isn't the priority. The priority is protecting as many workers as possible.

Any anti-government militia is guaranteed to lose a pitched battle against a heavily armed, highly trained government force. That way lies ruin

effective community armed self-defense requires the people with guns to have ties to the community they claim to defend. If you make a habit of walking around with a gun and no one in your neighborhood knows your name, they're going to quite reasonably be worried.

Gotta have an actual organization willing to set this sort of thing up

Not too many of those these days

You can’t even walk on the street as a group.

It gets you murdered by police.

More mass shootings. If a CCWer or cop sees someone with a semi auto rifle walking around, they'll probably assume they're a mass shooter and try to stop them. Similarly, anyone walking around with a semi auto rifle is going to scare everyone away from them, and gain no goodwill whatsoever.

Not that I think it's a bad idea, but I think that the places where ICE is being most heavily targeted (blue cities) also tend to be places with the strictest restrictions on open carry (blue cities)

What do you think that would accomplish?

great way to get more mass shootings