Yeah, in a perfect world, no one would own them - and it's what I would want. But also this:
Though this is also true:
Though this is also true:
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In case people are considering it, please don't buy a gun.
- Thread starter ItWasMeantToBe19
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This is the best way to go about it. If you want a gun buy one just be safe about it.
User Banned (3 Days): Trolling
i've never wanted one before but with the right wing publicly fantasizing about civil war i think buying a few guns might be a good idea. what does era think,.. is my six year old son big enough for a AR-15? I'm mostly sure my four year old daughter isn't ready yet...
Totally agree, and OP's flippant suggestion of "just get a home security system" is disregarding that fact.
Research shows that to absolutely be true.
But people want to have their hero complex's or irrational head cannon. Even people in this country that claim to be rational and liberal love to buy into Hollywood style bullshit about a gun being the ultimate tool for protection. It's not.
There are very few legitimate situations where someone isn't simply adding more risk to themselves or people around them by possessing or buying a gun to use in a situation than simply using other self defense techniques, including just fucking running or hiding....But for many that's not manly so they need a gun in case a burglar coming to get their stuff needs some Rambo action.
I'm not saying shoot the cops lol. I'm saying that when the existing systems cannot be trusted you may need to be your own first line of defense.
Gun suicides are bad, yes, but that's more of an issue of mental health than specifically gun ownership. As I addressed in my previous post you need to analyze your own situation and make a call based on that. Suicidal people have many ways they could go through with it, the prevalence of guns just makes it a common cause of death. We should be addressing the situations that are causing so many suicides, i.e. our piss poor healthcare, especially in terms of mental health, and of course the mental anguish caused by capitalism itself.
What's the safer street to live on?
A street where every household owns a gun, or a street where no household owns a gun??
I don't live in America so American gun culture is crazy to me.
A street where every household owns a gun, or a street where no household owns a gun??
I don't live in America so American gun culture is crazy to me.
White people telling brown people not to get guns is a super bad look.
And I say this as a lily-white dude.
I don't claim to be an expert on mental health, but I definitely agree that buying a gun is a bad idea if you have depression or other mental illness. You're more likely to kill/injure yourself or a family member than to use it to defend your home.
And if you do get one, make sure you're very familiar with the operation of the firearm and train with it. Live by the four rules of gun safety and stay safe.
And if you do get one, make sure you're very familiar with the operation of the firearm and train with it. Live by the four rules of gun safety and stay safe.
Check out stuff on situational awareness as well. No need for a gun for your use case.
If you do get a gun, never use on if you get ever robbed at gun point (God forbid that ever happens)
How to Develop the Situational Awareness of Jason Bourne
Jason Bourne was a master of situational awareness, and you can be too. Here's how to develop it so you can be prepared no matter the situation.
www.artofmanliness.com
I don't like guns, I don't have guns, and I don't want guns. But this is an utterly bizarre take.
The issue is, there are no streets where no household owns a gun. Not in America.
By giving them what they want, and then calling the police.
Note that this is the correct answer independently of whether you own a gun or not. No material possession is worth risking your life over (and frankly, no material possession is worth killing another person over).
That's the thing. IF I owned a gun where the hell would I keep it that it is safe and secured but I can also get to it and be ready to use it in ~20 seconds. Nowhere is the answer (unless you go way gun nut with it) making it completely useless for self defense anyway.
the least safe street is the one where all the hyper-conservatives own guns and no one else does
I own a lot of guns, but most people are idiots when it comes to gun ownership. The worst of the worst are ones that keep a round in the chamber. This is basically 99% of accidental gun shootings/deaths.
For example many guns have a slide pull weight (minus revolvers of course...which again, shouldn't be openly available in a home to anyone) that kids can't chamber, but if you leave a round in the chamber that means 99.99% of people can fire the gun immediately. Heck, even a pet could accidentally fire the gun.
For anyone that does have one, or potentially would get one, NEVER keep a round in the chamber, EVER, PERIOD. That's how people get killed unintentionally almost every single time. 🤦♂️
FYI I do carry a gun for my job, and it has saved me (I'm not any form of law enforcement). That's just once in 17 years though, and the chances of needing one are very, very tiny in everyday life.
I'd happily, at some point, move my family to another country that doesn't allow purchasing them like here in the US.
OP
OP
Cool, I don't think universal mental health acceptance and coverage and perfect depression treatment (depression is very hard to treat in many circumstances even with great health care) is coming in the near future and I don't want gun ownership to become normalized among liberals (especially liberal women) while that is the case.
So am I supposed to let my livestock that help me put food on my table just get mauled and like it? Do you think I can call the police to come get a bear off my property?
I store my guns safely, they aren't loaded, I dunno how you think someone could be more responsible. I feel like this is an elitist attitude, for some people guns are a tool, not ra-ra let's go to the range and fire off some rounds.
This is a reason many folks with young children don't get guns actually.
Are you planning on starting a Black Panther chapter? Because I really don't understand how people are drawing a line from: The Black Panthers helped push back on police brutality to imma get a gun for myself and keep it in my house.
That just comes off like a different flavor of right wing rationalization fantasy that I hear from right wing nutters talking about needing to have guns stockpiled for when the government comes for them to take their freedoms.
If someone has a legit purpose(farm to kill off predators) or maybe if you are part of a productive chapter of a armed civil rights groups, sure, but there is pretty much no empirically defensible reason to own a gun for self defense that can't be better achieved through a different approach.
I don't think you're quite getting what a lot of the counterpoints are in here... you're speaking from a place of privilege . You come off as trying to convince people to rely on the police and security systems because it's safer... and it's just not a reality for A LOT OF PEOPLE. Your point about suicide is 100% valid and should be a reason for background checks... but to straight up tell people, especially POC, not to buy a gun to protect themselves from the crazy MAGA chuds and racist garbage in the world is unreal.
Yeah. It takes one second to chamber a round of you actually need it.
Yup. I live in SC where they elected Lindsay Graham... again. They're crazy out here.
Plus, I just bought a home with wetlands behind our backyard. We sometimes get copperheads, rattle snakes and black moccasins apparently. All of which are venomous. I'll keep it locked up and safe.
Plenty of European countries allow rifles of some kind and do it responsibly. We can too... somehow.
Don't buy a gun if you are depressed or suicidal or think you may feel that way in the future, but I can't believe the statement "a lot of liberals are depressed".
A gun is a tool, its great for peace of mind and its a nice hobby to learn that is extremely practical and useful. If bad shit is going down I'd rather have a gun than hope cops save me. I think its a bit of white liberal privilege to say minorities and stuff should rely on the cops instead of themselves. Its hard to keep in mind when giving advice that most people aren't like you.
Prices of bullets have skyrocketed unfortunately in the last 12 months, it went from 5-6c/round to nearly a $1 in some cases. At least 5-10x price jump in every case.
A gun is a tool, its great for peace of mind and its a nice hobby to learn that is extremely practical and useful. If bad shit is going down I'd rather have a gun than hope cops save me. I think its a bit of white liberal privilege to say minorities and stuff should rely on the cops instead of themselves. Its hard to keep in mind when giving advice that most people aren't like you.
Prices of bullets have skyrocketed unfortunately in the last 12 months, it went from 5-6c/round to nearly a $1 in some cases. At least 5-10x price jump in every case.
OP
OP
I am telling everyone to not get a gun because I worry a lot about suicide in the United States because I was suicidal from 13 to 21.
I'm going to say it's an extremely bad look for anyone to be encouraging gun ownership on a forum suffers badly from depression. ResetEra's userbase is one of the reasons I made this thread because there's so many suicidal people here and the suicide threads are so frequent.
The problem with that analogy is that the right wing thing is a fantasy. The government was never coming for their guns, blacks were never coming for their women, socalism was never coming for their bank accounts.
People who are afraid of things like police brutality and ring wing violence are actually talking about real things that are escalating within their own communities.
Well it's already begun. America is in the early phases of complete destabilization and it's smarter for people to be able to handle one and be able to protect themselves than to rely on an increasingly overtly violent state, especially as the political landscape has shifted to where a massive political faction has made it clear they want their enemies dead.
It's unfortunate but this is where we are. Capitalism is an unsustainable system and we're headed towards it's endgame. Being able to protect yourself and your loved ones will be an invaluable skill very, very soon.
We've had two guns for years. Small, 9mm pistols that frankly aren't going to do much if somebody's really intent on getting you. We've locked them in safes ever since we've owned them and at times have kept the ammunition in a completely different safe in a different room as a safety precaution around the kids.
Trust me, if I'm gonna off myself, I'm gonna find a better, more reliable way than our peashooters upstairs.
Trust me, if I'm gonna off myself, I'm gonna find a better, more reliable way than our peashooters upstairs.
I mean, to be totally cynical for a moment, another reason why the whole idea of advocating liberal/socialist/leftist gun ownership is ridiculous is because - even if there is an uptick in lefty gun ownership - the number of right-leaning to genuinely insane zealot gun owners dwarfs anything that the left in this country could amount to.
In some delusional parts of twitter and fb you'll see people quoting Marx about an armed proletariat and arguing for arming the "working class" as if they're some kind of monolith with unified class interests. Ignore for the moment the fact that Marx could never account for the particularity of race and class as they are experienced in the United States. The reality is, a lot of the working class in this country is violently right wing and intends to stay that way. Advocating leftist gun ownership in America requires a blindness to the realities of America's population and larger political alignments. The chances of a popular armed revolt, or even of left wing activists using violence effectively to achieve any sort of political ends, are pretty much nil.
Essentially what I'm saying is, this is the left wing version of the right wing fantasy of hording guns in order to thwart or overthrow a tyrannical government. In reality, you're gonna get washed.
In some delusional parts of twitter and fb you'll see people quoting Marx about an armed proletariat and arguing for arming the "working class" as if they're some kind of monolith with unified class interests. Ignore for the moment the fact that Marx could never account for the particularity of race and class as they are experienced in the United States. The reality is, a lot of the working class in this country is violently right wing and intends to stay that way. Advocating leftist gun ownership in America requires a blindness to the realities of America's population and larger political alignments. The chances of a popular armed revolt, or even of left wing activists using violence effectively to achieve any sort of political ends, are pretty much nil.
Essentially what I'm saying is, this is the left wing version of the right wing fantasy of hording guns in order to thwart or overthrow a tyrannical government. In reality, you're gonna get washed.
Depends on the gun. If it's a long rifle or something used for hunting or target shooting, fine by me. I'd never go hunting but I'm not going to stop people from doing it.
Same with home defense. A shotgun or pistol is all that's needed for that though. An M-16? No. Heellll no.
But I come from this as someone who isn't a gun owner and never would buy one. I'm just not interested. But if someone is I see no reason to stop them as long as they are taking the proper precautions.
As far as gun use goes, you're much more likely to have it used for suicide or an accidental death than use it for protection.
That's the numbers / reality. So yes, people should factor that into their decision, and how they store guns (trigger locks, separating ammo, ect).
That's the numbers / reality. So yes, people should factor that into their decision, and how they store guns (trigger locks, separating ammo, ect).
I'd love to not own a gun, learn gun safety, or spend time on the range getting acquainted and feeling comfortable with a weapon. But I live in the US. Seeing roaming packs of extremists on the road with my own eyes has changed me.
It sounds to me like your projecting your own fears and insecurities about guns upon other people, especially in regards to suicide. So yeah, you probably shouldn't own a gun, but many other people do so just fine. I have many family members, namely Grandparents that have owned or shot guns probably since they were 16 or younger. Mainly for hunting and self defense, and over about 60-70 years of their life nothing went wrong. So if they aren't responsible gun owners than I don't know what is.
I started shooting guns when I was 10, I'm 36 now and own couple guns and have never had an issue. I don't hunt and they are just for target shooting, self defense or SHTF scenarios. Especially in today's climate with right wing nut jobs I feel safer owning a gun. I don't believe in taking away peoples right to own a gun, but I do believe in more strict guidelines/rules/laws on who can obtain one. It just blows my mind some people on here hate guns so much and don't want anyone to have one, but are cool with law enforcement/military having them? I think it's very apparent shit can go real bad even for the well trained. You live in a fantasy utopia if you think there will ever be a world devoid of guns.
I started shooting guns when I was 10, I'm 36 now and own couple guns and have never had an issue. I don't hunt and they are just for target shooting, self defense or SHTF scenarios. Especially in today's climate with right wing nut jobs I feel safer owning a gun. I don't believe in taking away peoples right to own a gun, but I do believe in more strict guidelines/rules/laws on who can obtain one. It just blows my mind some people on here hate guns so much and don't want anyone to have one, but are cool with law enforcement/military having them? I think it's very apparent shit can go real bad even for the well trained. You live in a fantasy utopia if you think there will ever be a world devoid of guns.
User banned (2 weeks): Antagonistic and condescending drive-by
LOL. I love the people that are defending their gun ownership by saying seeing these hordes of well-armed white supremacists has motivated them to own a gun. Like you're going to survive if they decide to come after you in a pack. You're more likely to survive by begging for mercy or playing dead than by getting into a gun fight. Everything about firearms is driven by irrationality, and this thread just proves it again. The only thing owning a gun guarantees is that you're more likely to die from gun violence.
I'm not pro or anti anything. Whatever a consenting adult wants to do or purchase, as long as it's not anything properly illegal or isn't based on shitty views like racism, is fine with me.
I live in the northeast and even with current events I truly don't feel threatened by all the nutters. Their ire feels directly pointed at the government apart from the mass shooters. Actually having a gun in my life feels far more dangerous than the likelihood of being effected by them, physically.
So what's the plan? Cops come to your house and you open fire?
You plan on carrying it on your person for when a cop does the wrong thing and then you kill him? Then what? You survived a few extra hours before the blue show up and "accidentally" kill you upon attempting to arrest you?
Like I said, if you are actively part of a solution based movement toward this problem, I can accept the justification, but what scenario do you think exists where you live in a white supremacist police district and you just get away with killing a cop that wants you dead?
Dismantling and purging white supremacy from the system isn't going to be achieved by purchasing a gun for your home, it's going to be achieved through sustained and organized collective action. I struggle to see how a gun for self defense in the home is actually a guard against that
OP
OP
The Troubles killed 3500 people in the entire history of the war. Let's multiply that number by 5 or 6 because of the US's larger population.
That's around the same level of death as gun suicides in the United States in one year.
Even if you expect the US to reach the level of violence as in The Troubles or some similar conflict, gun suicides are just going to be such a larger percentage of death.
Yup. I will never own a gun, it goes against my principles. I have never felt the need for one in my life and I hope to continue to never feel the need for one. I find their uses for "protection" to be very limited, I would not feel more secure having one in my apartment or on my person.
For these white terrorist kooks waving around their guns, I am going to leave that work for the military and other authorities who are now on high alert. I am lucky being a white male as is and I won't pick up easy attention, I do sympathize with minorities who feel like they could be singled out or targeted but I would prefer to promote abstinence from gun ownership in general.
For these white terrorist kooks waving around their guns, I am going to leave that work for the military and other authorities who are now on high alert. I am lucky being a white male as is and I won't pick up easy attention, I do sympathize with minorities who feel like they could be singled out or targeted but I would prefer to promote abstinence from gun ownership in general.
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