Gotta give the (probably imaginary) recruiter credit for a classy response though.
They’re usually dudes who got bumped there for being injured, for being psyched, or being incompetent but well meaning. Don’t be mean to them, they legit don’t want to do what they’re doing they know how stupid and shitty it is but they still have time left in contract and gotta trudge it out day by day like the rest of us.
Some of them, sure, but there are a lot of stories of how many lies recruiters will tell you to get you to sign on, so a pretty significant number are genuinely bad people.
Last time a recruiter harassed me via text he tried to convince me of all the kickass benefits and fun of being in the military. Straight up just told him “Dude, if you put a gun in my hand, you’re going to be responsible for a suicide. Not happening.” For some reason he never replied.
Why I refuse to have guns even though I’m really interested in learning to shoot. I would love to go to a range and get better at target practice but I just don’t want to go down that path. Maybe I should consider archery
Jesus, there is a non-zero number people, in this thread, that don’t get guns because they are afraid they might suicide? I hope you get the help you need, keeping a gun out of your house is a good thing but it is just the tip of an iceberg.
Edit: Everyone on this thread is acting like this is normal, THIS ISN’T NORMAL OR OK. PLEASE take care of yourself.
There’s a well-known and strong correlation between gun ownership and suicide rates:
Men who own handguns are eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don’t own handguns, and women who own handguns are 35 times more likely than women who don’t.
I’m not sure if it’s fair to say that people are “acting like this is normal” - it is a real danger, and it’s good that these folks are aware of it and are acting accordingly. Even if you get help, you won’t just magically get better and will never suffer from suicidal thoughts again. Making sure you don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger seems like a healthy strategy to me.
Basically the out of a simple pull of the trigger is too easy. Easier than jumping off a bridge, relatively painless, quick and doesn’t injure bypassers.
Having the gun is too easy an out, so people with suicidal thoughts will stay away from them. I was like that too at 22. Here’s just one of many stories. Trigger warning for suicide (duh)
If Quebec, Canada had the same access to handguns as the US, I would be dead today. Simple as that. Instead, I failed an attempt to jump from a viaduc because I was scared of causing a collision and taking someone else with me, was sent to the hospital by the police, got a psychiatrit’s help. Turns out I wasn’t a lazy worthless piece of shit. I had an untreated, very powerful case of ADHD blocking me from accomplishing anything of value.
I am no longer suicidal. I’ve overcome that. However, I always worry that those feelings will one day come back after a series of bad decisions. I am, therefore, keeping things that would kill me in an instant without pain away from myself. You just never know when you’ll have a moment of weakness. If I thought to off myself once, I can think of it again.
Idk if you’ve ever had suicidal thoughts, but they can are generally really impulsive, and not really well thought out. Obviously everyone is different, but many suicides are done on impulse.
I’m doing perfectly fine right now. I’m happy and have a pretty good life. But I know that when bad events happen, those suicidal impulses are just that…impulses. they aren’t something that most people who attempt suicide sit down and take the time to thorougly think out. They can happen unexpectedly when you’re in a vulnerable stste. Unexpected and intense life events happen that can push even “normal and well adjusted” people over the edge if they have access to something dangerous like that. Imagine suddenly and unexpectedly losing your spouse or your career or etc. Shit happens.
I suggest if youre looking for a shooty type hobby that doesnt involve actual guns, yes archery is very neat, though modern compound bows are comparably pricey to many guns…
Perhaps try paintballing or airsoft?
Frankly I’ve always found airsoft and the community around it pretty cringey, but I had a blast ‘woodsballing’ as a kid. The indoor competitive ranges I found silly… but it can be great fun to stomp around in the woods for a day, if you don’t mind huge bruises from getting hit haha!
Even so, probably most outdoor ranges have an area for chronoing (dialing in your gas pressure so your paint is flying at an appropriate speed) or just target practice, and you can probably just plink at such a range if you wanted to.
Or maybe airsoft sounds more your thing?
You can probably hire them at the range.
But a VR gun app may satisfy you. You get the skills without the danger, noise and cost (ignoring headsets cost).
… a very, very small subset of the skills, if any.
Is there a VR gun app that simulates guns having… weight?
How About how to handle misfires, squibs or jams? Does it go over safety precautions, proper storage, handing, transit and relevant local laws?
Oh how about recoil management and shooting stances and shouldering? All the intricacies of reloading different kinds of weapons? Trigger pull and break?
If you got your gun training from VR, you’d still probably want to take a firearms familiarization course IRL before actually using a gun, as all that VR can really offer is the general concept of aiming.
Also, depending on your VR headset of choice, you could probably actually buy a decent pistol, rifle or shotgun and a day at the range’s worth of ammo for the same cost.
Honestly, a pellet or bb gun would be a far better way to learn a lot more applicable basics of shooting for cheaper than a vr headset.
Idk if this is something that would be legal in every state, but most shooting ranges I’ve seen have firearm rentals. This typically helps them to sell guns because you can see how they feel, but there’s no obligation to purchase. They also might let you rent stuff that you couldn’t legally purchase without crazy licensing, like fully automatic machine guns.
I have a friend who doesn’t think it’s a good idea for himself to own a gun for similar reasons. Others here seem to be alluding to that being a huge issue, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. It’s weird to assume that the people who don’t want you own guns must have mental health issues. The data is clear that owning a gun makes a person significantly more likely to be harmed by a gun, whether it’s self-inflicted, an accident, a robbery gone wrong, or any number of other events. If you feel like your health and safety are at risk because of anxiety or depression or anything like that, I hope you’re able to help yourself by even just chatting with somebody who is qualified to help you, maybe getting some medication and lifestyle tips also. I found that I had a vitamin D deficiency, and just taking a standard supplement every day has had a big positive impact on my mood and attitude. Like, I still feel helpless in a shitty world that we as a species are actively making worse every single day, but now I know that that’s a problem that’s way too big for li’l ol’ me to solve. But what I can do is take a few minutes to type something to an internet stranger to tell them that they matter and that they are worth the effort of helping. You matter and you’re worth the effort of helping. Even if you don’t think it’s particularly dire, check in with yourself. Therapy is not for emergencies, so don’t wait until it’s an emergency to talk to somebody.
<3
If you want a pretty close experience without the real risk of suicide, you could always go with lower caliber airguns. The lack of muzzle energy means it’s not a ripe candidate for killing anything but small game at most, it requires you to be pretty on top of your shit as far as consistent follow through, holdover, windage. Shot per shot cost can be pretty low, especially if you get a swaging die and make the pellets or slugs yourself. The only downside is that the guns can get pretty pricey, up in the realm of very expensive normie guns, especially for something very high quality and with all the cool stuff, but overall it’s a pretty cheap and less dangerous hobby if you like shooting. Most people have this conception that they’re only for kids or whatever, based on what they see at the sportsman’s warehouse, but with a bit of googling you can find some guns that are pretty performative for not a lot.
When somebody contacts me out of the blue without my input, tries to sign me up to get murdered for the benefit of the military industrial complex, and reads “No, I’m not interested” as “tell me more,” I become less likely to be as polite about matters. No means No, and if you keep pushing I’m gonna be as blunt as I need to be.
At least he was chill about it and was like " yeah - I get it. "
Isn’t this why we should embrace EVs and other cars that can use renewable energy so we don’t have to worry about the middle east and other petrostates?
Evs make us reliant on lithium which just shifts the problem to another country. Additionally - the infrastructure is not there for evs.
I think the best alternative right now would be biodiesel hybrids and straight biodiesel vehicles and FUCKING SMALLER VEHICLES
Public transportation.
The less of our lives we have to buy the less critical supply chain there is to “defend”
It’s not that easy. Sprawl needs to be addressed. Our cities are build around cars. You can’t slap a few busses in a town expect shit to work.
I work an hour away from my home. I would take a train but there isnt one that is reliable or cheaper than driving.
Having a light rail system that connected the east coast would take centuries unless the government acted with unprecedented action and speed even then it would be decades.
I’d love more public transportation yes.
I am saying right off the bat I think biodiesel would be a more viable alternativ as it could be relatively easily adopted as the infrastructure is already in place.
Edit - I was probably a bit verbose when I wrote this. Clearly it won’t take centuries. Decade or two at the most
Edit two: I was also misinformed about biodiesel - thanks for the helpful information, I appreciate it.
Biodiesel is not a good option imo the NOx emmisions are generally significantly higher. Also most of the oil thats used to create biodiesel is not sourced responsibly. The production procces also still creates toxic waste although usually less than normal diesel.
Source: i just wrote a report on this if you’re really interested. i can dig through my sources lmk
I’m mostly worried about the huge area consumption, tbh? Like, if you would replace all fossil oil with biodiesel, how much agricultural area would you need? Probably more than we have, I’d have to look it up, but it’s a lot for sure.
Biodiesel also is pretty destructive to the seals on the engine as it has higher levels of solvents the eat away at rubber. Renewable diesel is a better option, as it has higher cetane levels and can burn cleaner, and is designed as a drop in replacement for dino #2, though I don’t fully know how it’s sourced.
All I know is my truck ran like shit on B20 and not nearly as bad on R99. That, and the factory recommends reducing oil change and filter intervals by 50% on both bio and renewable. It’s a clusterfuck obscured by marketing.
How about better public infrastructure, like trains and tramlines? They don’t require lithium, and are fully electric.
Batteries are still better because they can be recharged without oil or extra pollution.
You cant recharge an ICE engine without more pollution and oil
Where does your power come from? You don’t just plug into the wall and get magic clean energy. You are just shifting the shit elsewhere.
It’s a lie told to sell you a good and you are eating it up.
Less than 8% of energy consumption in the US comes from renewable energy. Another 8% come from nuclear.
That’s petrol / natural gas / coal powering your home, factories, shops, and restaurant. Natural gas is not green, it’s greenwashed.
‘Other Country’ being mainly China, which happens to sit on most of the lithium deposits on Earth if I am not mistaken.
Also to a lesser extent, Afghanistan. I remember a few years back a report of huge lithium deposits being found there but uh… yeah good luck with running that operation.
It’s actually Argentina and Chile, which tips that calculus in our favour given they’re friendly western developed nations.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/lithium-reserves-by-country
Biodiesel specifically due to it’s relatively clean manufacturing process. Cost not withstanding. Cost will go down as adoption improves.
Evs make us reliant on lithium
Oh no! No the third most abundant element in the universe! WTF are we gonna do? Use another metal with a large valency shell that makes it ideal as a dense storage medium for electrons? the horror
Bikes, bike infrastructure, and ebikes are about as carbon efficient as you can get without just straight up walking.
But they’re not really feasible for most people because few cities have enough protected bike lanes and sensible zoning to let it happen.
So we have much easier options.
I’m a big fan of hydrogen for stuff like cars. Install more than enough solar or hydro or whatever, then use the surplus energy to create hydrogen cells that can be stored long-term, so that the hydrogen itself is also created with clean, renewable energy, usable on demand.
I love hydrogen, but it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to transport and store.
I mean it’s just not generally energy efficient compared to batteries, and the majority of hydrogen tends to come about as a byproduct of, I think it’s propane and natural gas extraction and production. Electrolysis is pretty far off from being an effective competitor to batteries. I do still think that theoretically the specific energy is high enough that it doesn’t really matter, since that seems to be like the major limiting factor keeping electric from going mainstream, and me personally, I would probably also use the oxygen made by electrolysis for some cool rocket fuel cars, also cutting down on the lack of , but everyone’s against that because “The cars would explode you psycho/moron!” and other stupid idiot considerations that I don’t care about. But yeah, generally we don’t have enough of an energy excess to be able to run cars off of it in a reasonable way. Energy density still sucks also, but then, it’s not like modern cars tend to really use a lot of their space anyways, so I don’t think that matters too much.
Oddly enough emissions standards are one of the major reasons vehicles are getting so big.
In 2012 fuel economy standards were changed as a response to the manufacturers calling everything a truck to get around regulations (seriously - they classified the PT Cruiser as a truck in the 2000s). So now standards are weighted based on vehicle footprint instead of by class.
Notice how around 2012 was when the American auto manufacturers stopped making the old Rangers, S10s, Dakotas, etc? And now that the Ranger is back it’s as big as the older F-150s and the F-150s are the size of a small airport? And as the CAFE standards get tougher over time the vehicles keep growing?
It’s easier to just make the trucks bigger every refresh cycle than to make them more efficient, so that’s what they do.
I honestly doubt that. There aren’t really good alternatives to oil, but EVs just need any kind of accu and lithium-based accus are what’s most economic right now. Furthermore lithium doesn’t get consumed like oil and there gets research done into recycling it.
Yeah, EV’s are not, in themselves, the cure for our environmental woes. Too much electricity is still generated from fossil fuels for the carbon footprint to actually be diminished much and the environmental toll of mining for lithium also needs to be factored in. BUT, at the very least, it removes some dependence on oil in particular, where coal and natural gas are other forms of fossil fuels used to generate electricity. If nothing else, it takes some pressure off very specific regions, pressure which has contributed to invasion, war, international manipulation, extreme politics and oligarchies. It spreads the sources for resources around further.
Also it moves the burning of gas from millions of these poorly efficient vehicles to a single much more efficient power plant.
Well, yes, but also the efficiency of the EV’s will factor in as well. Less efficient EV means more power draw for the same miles. But with things like regenerative braking and no idling, even the least efficient EV is probably more efficient then the most efficient gas powered car.
I think it’s naive to think that the imperial core will stop with the needless wars simply because oil is no longer the hot commodity. There’s always perverse interests to use the military for power projection and resource control.
Under your current voting system, this will never change.
I for one, refuse to be shipped off in our generation’s tribute to America. Our government (Australia) is still the US’ vassal state.
The last time a recruiter texted me, I replied with that meme. I haven’t heard from a recruiter since, so it appears to have worked.
