Arm the oppressed
But if you do get one make sure to maintain it and your skills with it so that you use, clean, and store it safely and are effective if you do use it.
God damn right! If you are new to guns though please go take a safety class first, the hunter safety course (even if you don’t hunt) is a wonderful intro imo, and typically free/cheap. Took it when I was 11ish and it did a great job getting me in the mindset of always being conscious of where I point the muzzle of my firearms.
All this is from a pretty staunch gun advocate too (although I am extremely open to and encourage discussions around how to regulate them a bit more).
Agreed. I own guns. I go target shooting for fun once in a while. I hope to never use them against a person, and I think we need to reform gun laws.
But I also think more people should be arming themselves against the apparent threat.
I hope to never use them against a person
Me too. The absolute last thing I want, again as a staunch gun advocate, is to ever have to use it in a real life situation for about a half dozen reasons.
I took a concealed carry class to get my permit some years ago, which I recommend even if your state doesn’t require a CC permit. They had a retired sheriff and a lawyer for two of the instructors, they went through multiple scenarios of both when do you use it and what will happen afterward. I NEVER want to have to fire a firearm in self defense, I will but I literally have to feel like my life or the life of someone else is in IMMEDIATE danger. Even then you run the risk of missing and hitting an innocent bystander, police typically only have a 70% hit rate across 2 shots (unverified, could be wrong).
It’s amazing how whatever is going on in politics, the gun industry always seems to win.
My cautionary tale is that I knew a guy from my childhood whose wife was raped in a break in. He bought a gun to keep around the house for protection, and the wife killed herself with it.
As a progressive gun owner, mental health is part of being a responsible gun owner.
If your wife is suicidal, don’t have a gun she can access.
The thing about suicidal people is they don’t always let you know. For those who have survived a traumatic event, the urge can be overwhelming and come from seemingly no where.
Also, is that something you would say to someone face after their wife committed suicide? “Well it’s your fault because you should have known,”? That sounds incredibly insensitive and out of touch.
A lot of people around here who don’t know what project 2025 says to do to queer people. Also a lot of people being strangely anti gun about this. So what, you think the solution is to sit back and do nothing? Do you think individual trans people are capable of sby themselves overturning gun legislation and having all the transphobes guns taken away?
Fascists have guns. The police sure as fuck isn’t going to start taking their guns away. The laws are not changing. If the state won’t protect you, if the state is trying to harm you, your only choice is to arm yourself.
I do think America needs better mental healthcare and maybe some licensing requirements on firearms.
I also think those licenses should let me buy any firearm if I pass the qualifications.
But I digress, an armed minority is harder to oppress. If every time the feds try to arrest someone, it turns into fucking wako, they will be more hesitant to harass people.
an armed minority is harder to oppress
With the level of police militarisation, I wouldn’t be so sure. If police murders a bunch of queer people, it’s still a pr disaster and so it’s something they want to avoid. But a bunch of queer people with guns in one place is called a compound or even possibly headquarters and they’re allowed to deploy tanks and flamebombs against it.
In the escalatory war wins the side that is legally allowed to own tanks and deploy flamethrowing robots. Every time.
I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again:
Having a weapon and not being in a large group in public just means the cops are more likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Especially in Trump’s America.
If you’re alone don’t give them a reason to believe you’re armed, because it will be used as a pretext to murder you.
The only time it works is if you’re in a large enough group and in a public space where the cops will draw unwanted attention to what they’re trying to do.
An LGBT person might decide that’s an acceptable risk if it allows them the chance to deter or prevent violence against them from the increased number of empowered bigots walking around in Trump’s America
Of course, I’m merely pointing out that it’s not a cure-all and people like Philando Castile learned the hard way that doing things legally doesn’t mean a cop won’t shoot you just because they’re scared. (Especially when you’re a minority)
It’s a protective measure that relies on: you never having more than one assailant, you being quicker on the draw than your assailant, and you being a really good shot under pressure. (That final one is what results in innocents deaths, and not enough people want to admit that they might not actually be that good of a shot.)
It’s why I personally prefer a couple high-powered flashlights. The best way to survive an altercation is to escape it.
Cops are not your friends
