The power of the armed population is in numbers and mindset.
I just looked up the total sales of hunting licenses in one state of the USA, Pennsylvania, for the year 2016. Please note, this is just a reflection of those that go hunting, not every one that shoots or owns guns. Some say there are about 3X more shooters then hunters.

That number in one of the 50 states is 914,323

9/10s of a million hunters in one state. There are 49 more. Consider how many people own a handgun or a shot gun or as you focus on....an AR or an AK who never use it to hunt with.

So we talk about the "might" of the military.

The whole of the USA armed forces including all 4 services, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force as of this year is 3,487,747.
So the hunters (not all the shooters) in Pennsylvania alone are 1/4 the size of ALL the US military troops in the USA and ALL of them deployed around the world and All of them in the active reserves and ALL of then in the inactive reserves.

If the guess above is correct and the gun owners outnumber the hunters in the state of Pennsylvania (and all others too) that number in PA would go to 2,742,969 which is 72% of the total number of personnel of ALL us armed forces. And as I said, there are 49 other states too.

Now is it reasonable to believe all of the gun owners would fight?
No!

But by the same logic, is it reasonable to think ALL of the personal of the US Armed forces would obey orders to commit High Treason against their own people?
Also No!

Keep in mind that only about 15% of all US personal have anything to do with weapons at all. The other 85% are non-combative roles. So from the number of 3,487,747 we should deduct 85% and that would leave 523,162 which is about 65% of Pennsylvania's hunters.

(Did I mention the other 49 states, and all the people who own guns but don't hunt?)

If an evil politician ordered the US Armed Forces to go to war against the US population and if ALL of the US Military personal were treasonous enough to do it, Pennsylvania alone would outnumber them by a large margin. And ALL of them have homes and live here, so it is possible they would incur the wrath of more then a few angry American citizens, some of whom know where ALL of them live, and many of whom own the farms and ranches and factories that produce the food and send the water and clothing to the military bases, not to mention medicines, tools, fuel, parts, and so on.

So it's a numbers game, and if Americans got it in their mind that the "tools" of the government are their enemies, how long would you guess all the technical weapons would last on those bases?

Sure they have choppers and tanks. But a fence and a few guards would not keep several millions angry Americans out very long, and nothing stops a tank or helicopter better then dead crews. If a military base was over run there is NO place to pull back to. Not only are they severely outnumbered, but they are also 100% surrounded and cut off from their food, water, power, tools, clothing and everything else.

The same it true even more-so for evil politicians and corrupt cops.

They have homes too. And millions of American know where they live.

Mindset is key.

As long as any population thinks their government can defeat them they will cower and give up without a fight.

But let that mindset change ----for only one day---- and if those 163,000,000 Angry Americans go to war with the 500,000 that declared war on them, and that war would be over (do to lack of enemies left to kill) in about 4 days. The traitors are outnumbered only about 330 to one, and the traitors have no place to pull back to that can be defended ,and have no control of their food, water or power.

How strong are these politicians really?

As strong as the cowardice of the people they fool.