Should we prepare to take up arms?

Yes and no. Armed revolutions to overthrow governments tend to result in stronger, more oppressive governments regardless of who wins the revolution. However, bad laws should be disobeyed and broken, and it may be necessary to exercise your right to self-defense should someone seek to enforce those bad laws. A free society is built from the ground up by free people, not handed down from on high by a benevolent government, because governments are always built on a foundation of violated liberty no matter what the rhetoric says.