Not at the start.
Initially... for years... they were trying to TALK to the British gov't about the freedoms that British citizens expected.
Then there was added various forms of protest & non compliance. Peaceful and then not so peaceful , like the Tea party and tarring and feathering & the like of certain officials.
excerpt From Patrick Henry's speech
...And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!...
Most people in the US are still willing to go along with all losses of freedoms and wonder what some of us are complaining about.
the public hasn't even really started to complain.
Who's really complaining about gov't spying on citizens at this point? Censorship? Warrantless search of homes & cars, police check points "your papers please" etc etc.?
Armed rebellion is a last resort not a 1st option.
As you've said more people need to be on the same page.
But not everyone, just a determined few. Civil Rights was won peacefully, Gandhi won independence from the crown peacefully. the feds would LOVE to make the rebellion for our rights today a violent one. they have infiltrated peaceful groups, put the defiant on watchlist and call everyone a
"domestic terrorist" who don't comply with the state. They instigate violence to try and marginalize the protest & protesters.
And they to gaslight us that there's NOTHING wrong.
But more people are seeing through it.
bottom line I don't think there's a need for violence.
significant noncompliance would shut down most of the unconstitutional BS.