I agree that it seems like a silly idea, at best. At worst it’s a silly and dangerous idea.
I think I get it. I hate guns. I hate what they stand for, I hate the machismo associated with them, I hate the ludicrous amount of power to basically end lives with a remote point-and-click interface they represent.
I have no doubt I would absolutely love owning and shooting a gun. Precisely because of the power. Because, if I’m honest, guns are cool. How they look. The solid weight in your hand (although I’ve never handled a loaded one). There is, obviously, some major cognitive dissonance here.
I would hate feeling forced to engage with guns in any way. The way I feel regarding guns may be due to whatever unresolved issues I have with myself, but whether I must contend with that may not be. Luckily, in Germany, there is no need for guns (nor any great prospect to acquiring them legally). We kill ourselves and each other on the Autobahn. Oh, and the climate, too. At least guns are better in that regard.
So yeah, fuck guns. And fuck the way I feel when I’m driving too fast.
They are and they aren’t. Guns are loud, ridiculously loud. Movies and TV shows don’t do justice to them. You’re holding something in your hands that is making explosions. Even when wearing hearing protection, they are loud.
They are also messy. “Gunshot residue” is a thing. Every time you shoot there are casings (and they come out hot and more than once I’ve had one burn my face by bad luck, or gone into my clothes). Sweeping those up is part of shooting.
Ammo is expensive. My pistol fires 40 caliber rounds which I can maybe get for around 30 cents each if I buy them in a big enough bulk. Imagine shooting quarters at things.
They’re also pretty scary. It’s an instrument of death. It can also save a life potentially, but I’m always aware of the fact that just a bit of carelessness can badly injure or kill someone, myself included. I’ve always been cautious to the point of paranoia dealing with my gun (and I was trained that way). That stress definitely reduces the enjoyment.
Yes, shooting a gun is fun. I haven’t done it in a long time and I should get around to it. I am really out of practice. But there’s a reason I haven’t in a while. It’s not all fun.
It’s very well possible I have a romantically inflated image of guns, and I can hope that that’s the case. Luckily, I’ll never have to find out. The thing is, I also believe that 130 km/h should be the maximum lawful speed, and of course, I could just choose not to exceed it myself even in the absence of regulation—but I rarely do. I mean, how does anybody get anywhere in a reasonable time at such a snail’s pace? And where’s the fun in that?
So all I’m saying is, I can empathize with the basic dissonance of wanting to do, and be, better… While not living up to it.
It’s in your first post. The OP says that he now reluctantly feels the need to carry a gun because several MAGA types have threatened him. You say this is fine, but then go off on him when he blames the MAGA people for him having to carry a gun.
By telling him he can’t blame the terrorists for making him feel unsafe, you are implicitly (if not explicitly) defending them. And mostly (it seems) because it gives you an excuse to hate on “both sides.”
The OP has been threatened by terrorists. It’s okay for him to blame them for his feeling he needs to carry a gun, when they would rather not. Terrorists can be blamed for making people feel unsafe.
The story is accurate as reported.
HMS didn’t say that. HMS said that the MAGA nuts didn’t make BD get a gun. There’s a difference between saying that the MAGA crowd can’t be blamed, and saying that the MAGA crowd forced BD into doing it. Clearly the fear coming from threats led to BD’s decision-making, but they didn’t take away the decision. That’s an important distinction.
On the other hand, while you somewhat mischaracterized with HMS said, HMS grossly mischaracterized what BD said. Because BD never said that he had no choice. He repeatedly said that it was his own decision. He said “I don’t regret my decision” and said, “FUCK YOU for making me feel like this is something I needed to do.” That’s not the language of someone who feels they had no choice in the matter. He is blaming domestic terrorists for influencing his decision, but not claiming he didn’t have one.
So HMS definitely deserves to be criticized but not exactly for the criticism you’re presenting. HMS is just flat-out lying about what BlinkingDuck said. Fuck HMS_Irrational.
This is what you chose to infer. That’s a reflection on your reading comprehension, not anything that I stated or implied.
Oh boy are you correct. I shot a .357 mag into the ground this spring to scare a bear away from our house. I was outside, but on my deck with the house behind me (ALWAYS have an escape route with bears about). I knew the noise would scare the bear. I warned my Wife that was in the house that it would be LOUD.
A neighbor that lives 1/4 mile away, and is also a gun owner, heard it. He was in his house. It caught his attention.
Well of course I assume that. Wolfpup isn’t lying. Why would I doubt a longstanding poster stating things they objectively chose to relate, or firsthand experience? What a stupid asshole move that would be.
It just didn’t relate to the issue. “Driving can sometimes result in disaster” is true, but we all understand that risk is different depending on the driver and the situation, so how does that relate to guns? It would seem to actually support I was making, which was that the risk of owning a gun can’t be universally applied to any one person; some are in more danger with a gun, some won’t be.
From the Omnibus Stupid MFers thread:
But you don’t have to worry when MAGA terrorists threaten to shoot you.
Heh, also coulda gotten cross-posted in the “Isolated shit…” thread.
I mean, you are essentially buying into the Republican fantasy that guns will protect you from someone trying to kill you, rather than increasing the odds of getting you or your family killed, or you killing someone unnecessarily, out of retaliatory aggression, etc. The research just doesn’t bear that out. It’s like a security blanket, only if a security blanket had a nonzero chance of smothering you in your sleep.
You have a new hobby? Ok. But don’t delude yourself.
The only time that guns are appropriate is when someone is trying to kill you. Their fantasy is that they will need to defend the local Wal-Mart from terrorists. My concern is that I may need to defend my home from them.
Will a gun “defend”? Will it protect me from bullets already coming my way? No, of course not. But you notice that when we have soldiers in hostile territory, we give them guns for a reason.
I’m going to politely disagree with Spice_Weasel. Not that they’re 100% wrong, having a firearm in your home does put you at risk of accidental discharges of various sorts, and does leave you a chance of aggravating a situation involving home defense into a lethal one. But…
We just had had a link 4 posts prior pointing out that there are indeed people verbally and literally threatening harm to people of more liberal persuasions (verification pending of course). And that’s after the OP’s statement of threats being made against them. Will the firearm STOP that? Almost certainly not, but it does give defense options that the OP can CHOOSE to use.
Can I honestly evaluate the risk v reward? No, too many variables, and it’s an evaluation each firearm owner does differently. But unlike most of the radical republican gun nut fringe, whose self-defense fantasies against the ‘other’ are just that, fantasies, there has been verifiable increases in both the rhetoric and actions of the right wingers, as well as the various white nationalists and Christian Theocratic efforts.
And two links below that an example of someone killing their neighbor out of political violence.
This shit is real, let’s see how this election rolls out…
I think the odds of one of these assholes breaking and entering into someone’s home for political reasons are, despite the crazy rhetoric, vanishingly small.
Much smaller than the odds of an accident or manslaughter or suicide or whatever.
Two instances out of how many hundreds of millions of people?
I’m just trying to crunch the numbers here.
And FTR I live in a hotbed of gun nuts who fly their freak flags and can’t wait to get the fuck out of here.
Do you think that these are the only two instances of threats of or acts of political violence by the right?
No, but we have mass shootings practically every day and it’s still not that great of a threat to the average person.
Same deal here.
Just based on my vast, colorful experience worrying about shit that is unlikely to happen… In my opinion the OP is trading an unquantifiable but probably vanishingly small risk for a concrete, measurable risk. I think on the whole he is less safe with a gun than without one.
But, you know, that’s his choice to make.
This is not a statement one can take seriously in light of this:
NOW - you S_W, may feel that the person saying this to the OP is lying, exaggerating, or speaking in a moment of passion, AND YOU MAY BE RIGHT. But in NO way would I consider this an intangible, distant, impersonal threat. So, I suggest you rethink you sentiment, or if you just feel the OP is lying, then, well, it is the Pit.