Sigh...I guess I joined the gun culture...and it pisses me off

The BBQ Pit
1

Debated where to put this and decided the Pit was more appropriate or even to post at all. However, I am a little pissed and want to get this off my chest.

Except for a short time while a teen where there was an army depot in town that encouraged the young boys (hey it was the 60s girls don’t eventually join the army!) to come in a shoot plus a little hunting with older brother as a kid…I have never been part of the gun culture. Never fired a gun as an adult etc etc. I believe in stricter gun control. You know, classic Lib.

However, after seeing polls where something like 25% of Republicans believe that violence is needed in politics and personally been told TO MY FACE from someone that if so-and-so gives the order than Liberals like me will be in serious trouble within the hour and he made it clear that it was going to be lead poisoning. Seeing people pop up on video or even the news saying much the same thing. Republican politicians smerking about ‘second amendment solutions’ and so forth.

People around here know I am liberal. I am active in local things like trying to get tuition down, minimum wage up etc. With the election coming up, and especially in 2024 I started to become seriously concerned for me, my wife and my adult daughter living with me.

So…I went out to the local gun club and joined. I bought a FUCKING PISTOL (and H&K vp9 - great gun btw). I now keep a FUCKING PISTOL in the house with ammo (locked up hard no one is getting to that sucker except me). I been shooting about every other day blowing too much $$$ on ammo and in taking lessons. I have been told that I am a good shooter and extremely good for a beginner. "A natural’ I have heard a few times.

And it PISSES ME OFF!

I can attest that the attraction to the gun is there. There really is an indescribable feeling when shooting it. I been looking at accessories. I have even signed up for an 'introduction to ‘competitive shooting’ class that people have been encouraging me to do and I am even contemplating giving competitive shooting a try! It really is attractive. It reminds me of the Catholic leader in ancient Rome writing about seeing gladiator games and having to force himself not to get into it as it was so seductive.

So…for the Pit.

FUCK YOU REPUBLICANS! Fuck you you god damned nutjobs. I would have been content to live my whole life without the possibility of shooting, or heaven forbid, killing someone. This is something I really, really don’t want to do.

FUCK YOU for making me feel like this is something I needed to do.

2

Seconded. I’ve been thinking of doing the same, for the same reasons, and it does really piss me off.

3

The American gun culture is literally an epidemic. It spreads like a virus precisely because of the kind of thinking that you elucidated. I’m not criticizing, just stating a fact. I’m sure that millions of others had much the same thought process – that they need a gun because too many others already have them. Statistically, every one of those people has willingly if unwittingly made themselves more likely to become involved in gun violence, either as a victim or as a perpetrator, and likely with their own weapon.

4

Those stats go out the window when the MAGAs start a shooting war in the streets.

5

I hear ya. However, being told that you, your wife and your daughter will be targeted if some nutjob gives the wink wink…it adds a powerful emotional element.

I don’t regret my decision but you are also completely correct.

6

Does that constitute a threat by the police? Of course, if he were to be arrested for that, your house would be torched.

7

I have clinical depression & anxiety; until the 2nd Civil War breaks out I’m safer without a gun than with.

8

You have to keep that ammo on hand and available at a moments notice. Full magazine loaded in the gun. You don’t need to chamber a round because you can just rack the slide back and load it, but that does take an extra step you may not have time for.

And if you accidentally shoot your daughter’s boyfriend while he is climbing in her bedroom window, well, that is just the price he paid for FREEDOM!

Gun culture is not an epidemic, it is endemic. Entrenched in US culture. So you are correct feeling that this is something you must do. You either have a gun or you have agreed to remain helpless. No gun control measures are going to change that.

9

Oooh, those…those…Republicans!

Seducing the OP away from good causes, and into an obsessive desire to shoot and kill innocent targets! The perfidy!!!

I’m assuming the OP is engaging in some sort of parody. In any case, I wanna know what accessories one is tempted to buy for a FUCKING PISTOL. :grimacing:

10

Oh I will still do the causes. Unlike most Republicans, I can do more than one thing at once.

I also don’t understand the rest of your post except for last line. It makes no sense in relation to my original post. Are you literate? Maybe mentally maga-ized? SOMETHING is wrong with you and you should get it looked at :wink:

As for the last line. Well…there is something called ‘Green dot’ and ‘Red dot’ which can help with accuracy and also with shooting in low light conditions. Night site iron sites (my pistol came with it but that isn’t usual). You can get different triggers. You can get a mini flashlight attachment for under the barrel. You can get ‘dry fire’ systems which allow you to see how accurate you are without firing ammo (ammo is expensive). There are holsters and belts as well as safety features, safes and that cord lock thingie to make your gun unfireable until removed. I know I am missing a couple things and I am sure there are many more I haven’t seen or imagined yet.

edit - oh! You can get different handles or modify the one you have to better fit your hand. You can get a silencer…these pistols are loud and firing inside with no ear protection can numb your hearing for a bit…like after defending yourself you might not hear the police officer demanding you drop your weapon (sales pitch from the salesman. I don’t think I need the silencer). I am sure I am missing many more possible. So, you might not think there is much for accessorising a pistol…but you would be wrong.

11

I have fired guns a few times (at inanimate targets) and moved on.

It strikes me that someone who finds they get a big thrill out of it and blames people of different political views for that feeling is being a trifle silly.

That is all.

12

Your (our, actually) motivation for owning those guns is more justifiable then theirs. Don’t feel too bad about it. I think it’s unlikely that we’re going to disintegrate to the point where using them is a real possibility, but the possibility is there and it’s better to be prepared. Many liberal-leaning people I know have done the same thing over the past few years.

13

Right…someone saying they will shoot you and your wife and daughter within an hour of being told to do so is just…someone of a different political persuasion.

Jack…you are a clown. I am done talking to a clown.

14

So the OP is someone who hasn’t been around guns a lot, yet thinks they qualify for this statement:

Hasn’t this one been tagged as a troll? Need answer fast.

15

You might want to look into actual combat training. Beau says that learning to shoot on a range is nothing like having to shoot in combat.

16

Trolls are coming out (Charlie, Jack) and I said my piece/ got it off my chest.

Carry on as y’all will as I am bowing out.

If anyone is thinking of going down the same path and wants to ask a question to someone that recently did this, send me a pm.

Just saw Morgyn’s post pop up. While I think ‘Military training’ is a bit grandiose, the club does offer classes like that and I will be taking them.

17

He’s not talking about military training, per se. He’s talking about learning how to shoot from awkward positions because standing out in the open and taking a stance, etc., isn’t likely to be the situation you find yourself in if what you fear comes to pass. How to shoot when moving. That sort of thing.

“You’re going to train like you fight.”

18

I sympathize. I will make no judgement for the OP or the reasons, and will just say I’m glad you’re taking an effort to secure the firearm from other users, intentional or otherwise in the house, and that you’re taking an effort to train yourself in use and safety.

I did a thread on this issue almost a year ago, which I’ll like here:

Which has a number of links in which I noted the changing demographics of new purchasers: POC, female, or liberal leaning. And the reasons boil down to fear of being targeted. Often a justified fear, but as stated in this thread and the current thread, the most important step is to protect yourself from accidental injury, which brings us right back to the beginning of my post.

Be safe, and may we all never need the firearms we have, nor be harmed by them.

19

Living in a bubble can create this hysterical reaction.

For protection against a home intruder a pistol should be fine. For participation in a civil war? Your life or death becomes very random. Best thing to do to avoid the scenario of fighting in a civil war is the opposite of what you are doing. Actively work to cool the polarization.

Unfortunately, messages that exploit emotional thinking resonate far better than analytical messages.

20

All of that is wrong except for part about entrenched gun culture. First, gun culture is indeed endemic, but it is also an epidemic in the sense of what numerous epidemiological studies have characterized as a national public health crisis.

Second, the OP is not “correct” in “feeling that [acquiring a gun] is something [he] must do”. Rather, I would say that the motivation is understandable, and so I’m not going to criticize him for it. But from a gun violence standpoint, statistically the presence of a gun makes you less safe, not safer. It is therefore statistically factually false that “you either have a gun or you have agreed to remain helpless”. I’ve never had a gun and so I guess I’ve been “helpless” my whole life with no bad consequences. In fact, to the contrary, when I was young and stupid I thought it might be cool to have a pistol, and I cursed the laws that made it very difficult if not well-nigh impossible to acquire one, but today I’m deeply grateful. When I think of all the things that have gone on in my life and around me in the many years since, there have been times when I shudder to think how the presence of a gun in the house might have had tragic consequences.

Finally, as to “no gun control measures are going to change that”, I just gave you an example of how gun control just did change that. But this was Canada, not the US. The US has a special problem because of the vast proliferation of guns. It needs more than what is usually meant by gun control; it needs to make many classes of weapon illegal or require strict licensing, and frankly require a massive buyback program which results in a great deal of steel being recycled into something more useful and less lethal. If that’s not palatable to you or politically viable in America, then good luck with your ever-escalating gun violence problem.

I thought the OP was pretty clear: he didn’t want to own a gun but felt obligated to do so because of the prevailing dangerous gun culture, and Republicans and MAGAts have been the perennial obstacle to meaningful gun control.

That’s not quite accurate. The OP blames Republicans for the prevailing gun culture, and that’s fair. The one criticism I do have of the OP, I must admit, is that having acquired a gun, he does seem a little bit too enthusiastic about it. Hopefully that’s just a reaction to a new possession, and hopefully he’ll lock it up and never think about it again.

On a final note, it’s really easy for this sort of discussion to digress into yet another gun debate, which I seemed to be doing here, so I hereby announce that I’m not interested in yet another gun debate but just wanted to get those points off my chest.