Since Trump’s election, gun groups catering to progressives and people of color report a surge in interest as they look to defend themselves in a country that, to them, feels increasingly unstable.
Ah the illusion of safety.
Because masked people with no ID think they can trespass on their property and rob them of their rights?
Lifelong anti-gun libtard here.
I’ve been doing my research and talking to friends with guns so I can begin the process of arming myself.
Fascism is here and I passed my history classes. I know where this is going. It’s time to make sure you, and everyone you know, is armed to the teeth.
If things keep escalating, which they will, because that’s what fascists do, then there will come a day when they attempt to prevent anyone who registered/voted Democrat from purchasing firearms.
Buy them. Now.
Never voted for any Republican anything my entire life. Have been buying guns for myself and my family for over a decade.
Please share your viewpoint with those in your circle of influence, as we will need more of this going forward.
Also, don’t just buy a pistol. Buy a shotgun and a rifle.
Be safe.
Gun owner and former military. One can purchase a rifle or pistol, but if you are not constantly training, muscle memory, with live rounds and maintaining your physical and mental fitness, you will fuck it up. The things I could do in my past, I can no longer replicate them with the speed and efficiency I once had.
One does not necessarily need the level of capability you’re referring to. The Jews fighting in the Warsaw ghetto did just fine for several weeks without that capability. The same lesson is also being demonstrated in Ukraine.
Yes, the more training, the better. But get a grip. You’re spreading FUD, bootlicker.
Trans person here who’s been attacked by a neo-Nazi - I really, really wish I had my gun at the time. Because, without it I was in a situation where I either had to let him kill me (not a good option) or pull a knife on him and at least try to seem crazy enough that he knew he’d be badly hurt too. Luckily that worked for me. If I’d had my gun, I could have at least drawn on him and told him that he was going to leave me be or die. My chances of survival would likely have been higher had I had my gun on me at the time.
I’m still not willing to get one. I am statistically safer without one in the house. I do have a couple large dogs, I collect knives and I have collapsible batons stashed in key locations.
Maybe once the kids are out of the house.
You’re statistically more likely to exit a fight with serious injury using a knife over a firearm.
You aren’t considering the correct statistics. Source: I’ve actually read the stats you’re citing and they don’t apply to this situation.
That’s just not understanding the statistics. Lots of people leave their chambered weapon wherever, they keep it on the kitchen counter, on the couch, on the bed, etc. then their kids find it and accidentally fire it.
Crazy violent people also have guns, and they will use what they have at their disposal to be violent. The gangster wannabe meth head that shot his roommate over an argument is in that starts m statistic.
Buy a safe, learn to use the gun and store it properly in the safe. You’re not less safe than before.
An armed minority is harder to oppress!
An armed minority is harder to oppress!
Doesn’t seem that way at the moment does it.
I was like “Just get a safe, store them outside, yada, yada”. The I read about the kids. Yeah, That’s a wise decision.
Yeah, I’m not anti-gun, I just follow the stats. Multiple children in the house and they are more clever than I am.
I believe a person can beat the stats. But they can’t make someone else beat the stats. Good choice.
Don’t forget silent weapons like slingshots and bows/arrows. It’s going to freak them out when they look down and see an arrow sticking out of their chest.
Slingshots are an effective deterrent, extremely compact. Get one with a forearm brace for increased stability. Best to use spherical ammunition (ball bearings, marbles), but pebbles will do in a pinch.
I shot a recurve bow for a decade. With a moderate draw weight and sharp arrowheads they can be lethal. Takes much more practice, strength and patience than a gun. You can attach fur to the bowstring to make it quieter. Impossible to conceal, and quite conspicuous.
Compound bows and crossbows are even more lethal with great precision and range, but louder and heavier.
Also arrows will go through the average kevlar vest.
Contact or join your local SCA group. They may be anachronists as opposed to anarchists, but if you want to learn how make and use weapons and armor of that sort there are few more accessible teachers and trainers.
One of them made large amounts of basic body armor from heavy gauge plastic barrels for use by protesters a few years back. They may not stop bullets, but they are very_ effective versus “non-lethal” rounds and similar.
And yes, the person did get a visit from the FBI, who let the person keep on making as they weren’t working on weapons of any sort. Just the armor.
To shoot ICE in their stupid fat faces.
As they come crashing though your door.
Specifically. You can’t afford anything but the most crystal clear case of self defence.
That won’t save you, but if ICE is crashing through your door, you probably aren’t making it anyway.
They’re pretty incompetent, but also, it does present significant deterrence to ICE especially if people aren’t charged for legal self defence.
I still think this is mostly about defending yourself from emboldened neighbors though.
Liberals, LGBTQ, whoever else was mentioned in this headline should have been training with guns for years at this point. The writing has been on the wall for a while.
I was anti-gun until I was 37. That’s when I realized it doesn’t matter about my political viewpoint regarding guns, the right has been using it as leverage for my entire life.
I’m 42 now. I got my first rifle when I was 38. I got my first shotgun when I was 39. I got my first pistol when I was 40. I go bi-weekly to the range.
The writer of the article should try harder to not confuse “interest” with preparation. This shit is an unwelcome use of my free time, but I’m probably a better shot than 90% of MAGA at this point.
As someone who used to create judgemental use of force firearm training simulators for law enforcement, I can tell you right now you’re likely a better shot than 90% of our police force too.
Yikes, that makes me feel uneasy. Do they not train on a regular basis?
By policy, it’s different per police organization. But overwhelmingly the biggest orgs only force training once a year. And the metrics they use to pass for accuracy and use are lower than most concealed carry courses.
…they do if you can believe it.
I thought they did too, that’s why I’m not so sure that I’m the better shot. I was thinking that I’m maybe on par with someone else that trains regularly.
Just following up from my previous answer: MOST officers only need to pass training on use of firearms once a year. It does vary per department, and some officers use their access to training and ranges to hone their skills. But MOST of them only follow the guidelines, and most guidelines only require recertifying firearm use once a year.
The writing has been on the wall for a while
I saw this coming when the tea party appeared. Moved my wife and daughters out of the US in 2015 for precisely this reason. When I lived there I owned a rifle and a shotgun, not because I thought I’d need to defend myself against criminals or immigrants, but because I thought there was a pretty good chance I’d have to defend myself against right wingers.
Concur, I saw it back then too. I wanted to leave but didn’t have the financial resources to do so at the time. Now that I have the resources, I’m too old for most places. The way I see it now is that I’m pretty much just hanging around so that my parents don’t have to outlive their children. I bought my rifle and shotgun for the same reason you had yours. I’ve been hearing threats from the right AT LEAST since the 1990s. It’s always been threats…
We are lucky. I’m Australian and lived in the US from 2005 to 2015, so it was easy for us to move. I think what really tipped my wife over the edge was going to watch our daughter’s kindergarten class Christmas concert on the day of the Sandy Hook shooting. That was the most surreal experience of my life, just typing it now still chokes me up a bit. It’s fucking sad, because there was a lot that I loved about the states.
Too few, too little, too late.
I hope not, but I think a lot of them are still living with the fear of yesteryear that has not updated with the times and the threat of their neighbors having it in for them, and not being as worried about the legal repercussions.
Too few, too little, too late.
Literally. They made gun ownership an obsessively partisan subject specifically so the other side wouldn’t be armed, neutering the left’s political capital.
Trump is only in power right now and wrecking our constitution and nation because despite having a minority support base, that base is the most unhinged, heavily-armed, devotely loyal group in the country. It’s the rawest, purest form of power. That’s what Jan 6th was about, he had no intention of actual insurrection, he just wanted to demonstrate that he could turn his people on a target. It was an arms test, like detonating a nuke in the Nevada desert. “I can do this anytime I want.”
Up until very recently, most of the deaths in wars were caused by disease instead of combat.
Give it a few months and the anti-vax stances paired with colloidal silver and horse-dewormer will leave plenty of guns and ammo for everyone.
The destruction of our healthcare infrastructure will accelerate this.
Also leftists. Also rightists.
So, basically, people from every political background are buying guns.
The warmongers win again.
While the pacifists did jack shit to stop this.
Zapp: I hate these filthy Neutrals, Kif. With enemies you know where they stand but with Neutrals, who knows? It sickens me.
Um…they’re pacifists? Maybe you mean a different word?
I think they’re blaming pacifists for not being violent
Because they are left winged terrorists who want to violently impose their ‘peaceful’ ways upon us
You mean rise up against tyranny, which is what the 2nd amendment is all about.
Or maybe just defend themselves and their families against the MAGAs who have been telling us for YEARS that they can’t wait to start killing us. It’s just a matter of time before the illegitimate MAGA government unclips the leash, and lets them loose.
Violence must not be answered with violence but with love and understanding.
Do not fight back, run towards them for hugs. Line up for them.
Really? When has that worked?
Violence must not be answered with violence
Found the loser who’s never read a history book.
FFS am I the only one here with a sarcasm detector? I may be British, but I don’t like to stereotype.
You forgot the /s and some ppl downvoted you thinking you were serious
left winged terrorists
Yup. Your IQ is about what I expected it to be. Below room temperature.
In kelvin
Why, oh, why?
Every american should be familiar with how guns work because we have to live in a country with more guns than people. Imagine if you’ve never drove, been inside, or even seen a real car your entire life then one day you have to cross a NYC street. Its hard to be safe without the right knowledge.
Every american should be familiar with how guns work
anddd that’s why i don’t goto the USA
Yes do a gun safety course first in your home country
no because i dont hunt so i dont need to use guns.
I don’t hunt either, but shooting can be fun.
They said need.
They clearly arent interested in it for fun.
You can be performatively afraid of something you will likely never have an issue with for no other reason than a thing existing, that’s fine and your prerogative.
But most people here already know you are far less likely to even have issues with entry into the US or with the people who live here than even media is making it out. Millions of people from all continents pass in and out of the US daily. You’re in far more danger being a grade-school or high-school student in the US than a foreign traveler or visitor.
To the kiddoes who get down this far, there are 500 million citizens in the US and murder is still rare enough that it makes the news. Not always, but often. While other countries have less violent crime, broadly our whole world is at an all-time low in violence despite what your local for-profit media company wants you to think. Yes, the US has woefully outdated gun laws, but our primary problem here is fear. The same fear that makes you think the US is a violent wasteland of shootouts on every corner, that’s the same fear that makes people here cling to guns. You’re not hurting me by whinging that you will “never set foot in the US” I literally do not care, so ask yourself who you’re performing for, and if you’re just needlessly adding to the narratives of fear, and why it makes you feel good to do so. Who do you want to feel bad and why?
Yeah nah bud. You’re arresting people trying to leave your country, tourists are getting roughed up, and violence from the government is increasing.
I think your tourism deserves to decrease and you deserve to sleep in the bed you’ve made.
I agree 100% with everything you wrote here, and none of it has anything to do with the exchange I had with the other user.
Except for this:
you
I am not my government.
You was speaking in countr terms as was the your before it.
Even still, its like, there is no “we only support the non fascists” from a foreign perspective when it comes to tourism unfortunately.
I mean there is a little bit when it comes to trade, like trading with blue states, but like, its all very intertwined to where youll be funding the fascist regime.
performatively afraid
I can’t get over how this is phrased. It feels so dismissive.
That would be because I am dismissing it.
Blocked
How ever will I recover from this blow
naw thanks, i don’t think people should have a right to own a firearm. not a safe country.
I get the sentiment but most countries on Earth have armed citizens. You have effectively negated yourself from traveling across much of Asia, much of Africa, South America and several prominent European nations where citizens are armed.
No country is “safe” and you will live in misery and fear if you deny yourself the ability to travel and have new experiences because some people may or may not own weapons.
Load of bullshit from an American Exceptionalism expert.
I’ve been all over the world, people carry guns. People shoot in the air to celebrate, people keep guns on their mantles, people keep guns to defend against predators, people carry guns because there are vast, vast areas of Earth that are not patrolled by police. Are these bad people?
It’s pretty bigoted to look down on these people for the circumstances and regions they live, but yeah go ahead and lecture someone for being an American.
edit: i can clearly see by your moderation history that I shan’t be investing a shred of mental energy your way. Go ahead and troll into the void, I won’t see it.
Please take your gun apologia somewhere else.
The number one killer of children in America.
The answer is yes, you are a bad person for promoting this nonsense.
dude i never plan to leave my country, so im good. dont worry.
Sounds good, enjoy your bubble. Hope nothing there ever changes.
i will enjoy my bubble thanks. canada is the best place to live!
There are so, so many other great reasons too.
To be clear your reason is a great reason. There are just so many others, too.
oh trust me i know, i haven’t liked america for a very long time.
Good for you!
yes, yes it is :)
This is literally pathetic. Talk about being gun oppressed and loving it.
Not much you can do when most people in the country already own guns. If someone points a gun at you, you’ll be wishing you had your own. This is mostly an American problem though and we’re fucked. At this point we all need guns because those psychotic fucks are coming for us daily. With how things are progressing so fast I’m just waiting for the day they show up at my door for voting Democrat in a Republican state. I’ve got my guns and I won’t go down easily.
Yeah, self defense fantasies are a mental illness bro. Love you, get some help.
I’d love to never have to own a gun. When I was 5 years old a woman put a loaded gun in my face and cocked it to threaten my parents. It’s not a fantasy, it’s a fucking NIGHTMARE. So yes, my fears are a mental illness. Thanks.
You are just one of many living in this nightmare. You know what it is like to jump for cover everytime someone shoots a gun in an urban setting? Millions of Americans get to experience this psychological abuse everyday.
I am sorry to hear your horrible experience. I have lost several people in my life to gun violence. I know women who were raped at gun point. I have had multiple guns shoved in my face growing up. Fuck guns and everyone who defends this shit show.
Lol I know exactly what it’s like to jump for cover every time someone shoots a gun, I still have to fight that instinct. There were bullet holes in the front door of my family home and on the side of the house. I was taught to lay on the ground every time we heard gun shots. When I held my first gun 5 years ago I was trembling and crying from fear of the damn thing. I LIVED THROUGH ALL OF THIS. I cannot and will not defend gun culture. When nearly the entire population has them and is willing to use them against you at a moments notice, you don’t have much of a choice. Since I am a woman, and as you pointed out I am at risk, I have more need than a man to conceal carry.
The point I’m trying to make is bitch all you want about guns in America. Call us morons for having guns, it doesn’t matter. Bitching won’t change anything. Someone has to take all the guns away before a change can be made and I’m willing to bet that’ll never happen in our lifetime. We’ll continue to be terrorized until our deaths. Might as well defend yourself if you can.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything including defending yourself. I do not agree with arming yourself, but that is just because your more likely to be injured.
Must be nice to go through life never having to worry about your personal safety. Fuck you and your privilege.
I am not a childlike, hence why I know guns are not the solution to your imaginary problems.
I didn’t say you were childlike. Use your eyes. Read again. I said you are privileged.
What’s the solution to a political party using firearms as leverage in a country that puts firearms in its governing document.
I absolutely LOVE reading these wildly naive takes. Go for it!
I implied you were childlike.
I love people who have no clue about the destruction and violence gun culture has caused us. This learned helplessness you have developed is impressive.
A fascist government takeover is imaginary? Fuck give me whatever glue you’re sniffing so I can be as dumb and ignorant as you.
Fascists thrive on violence, so if your suggesting that as a solution then you are playing right into their hands.
I’m not sure how you’re getting that out of what they posted. Reads more “know thine enemy” than power fantasy to me.
If know thine enemy is code for living in an oppressive gun nut culture where we lose around fifty thousand Americans to gun violence every year, then sure.
Number one killer of children in the US and the best we can muster is, “You have got to be familiar with guns because we are surrounded by them.” This is the definition of pathetic resignation.
Sorry I forgot that I can just wiggle my nose and make it go away. It’s the reality of the situation, like it or not.
Dealing with our problems isn’t easy. I guess we can just go back ignoring it. Cheers!
You can acknowledge present reality while also trying to change it. They’re not mutually exclusive.
No one can actually acknowledge what is happening though. Our entire society in the US is in denial.
It’s starting.
Don’t be a fool. Everyone in America has guns or access to them. It’s trivial to buy one and many on the left own them all the same as anyone else.
Like 40% of American households own guns. Most gun owners just own multiple. Leftist should either arm themselves in preparation or be prepared to be trampled on.
Thats a nice lie that left/center leaning people keep telling themselves.
The reality is that republicans by far have a higher percentage of gun owners.
If there were a fight that started today, there would be a sweep.
Then you have to remember that every force of violence in the US, LEOs, all branches of military, all support trump.
Then you have to remember that every force of violence in the US, LEOs, all branches of military, all support trump.
So, what kind of gun can I buy that will let me defend myself from a tyrannical reaper drone?
Or maybe planning to fight your enemy where he is strongest is fucking dumb?
If the full force of the FBI, military, and local law enforcement turns against the citizenry the citizenry is cooked.
Hopefully our fellow citizens will balk at killing their neighbors, but if they don’t, shotguns and handguns are only useful to increase the cost of enforcement on the gestapo.
They didn’t balk when their neighbors were being rounded up by the new gestapo and shipped off to extra-national slave prison camps.
Hope springs eternal. Preparations should be made for darker futures.
A gun does not defend you from a drone. It defends you from other people who are emboldened to commit crimes against you.
The point later in the comment is about what happens if the government fully turns in the citizens. Protecting yourself is midway to that.
You basically can’t let it get that far or you’re just cooked.
It defends you from other people who are emboldened to commit crimes against you.
No, it doesn’t defend you. At best, it will give you a chance to shoot back. Statistically speaking, the person you are most likely to use a gun on is yourself, second most likely victim of your gun is your spouse.
That’s nice, but those statistics are from a different time with a different threat profile.
We are long done with pretending we’re living in a reasonable society.
Actually, about 27,000 people in the US committed suicide by gun last year, compared to 16,000 non-suicide gun deaths, and apparently the gun suicide to gun deaths ratio actually went up from 2023.
No, the difference is, you believe all the bullshit. And I’m wise enough not to.
I’m not sure you can even vocalize what you’re trying to say here.
The facts are just not in your favour.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/
Key excerpt:
45% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents say they personally own a gun, compared with 20% of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
You’ll find that all available information says similar.
Republicans have a much higher percentage of gun ownership than democrats.
It’s not just that they own more guns per individual. They have more individuals with guns.
I’m pretty sure what they are saying is that they don’t believe a civil war (or similar) is starting.
There are millions of people in the US - if there was really an appetite for mass violence in the populace, it would’ve already revealed itself.
Accept that we are relatively peaceful in modern times and rethink your beliefs. Not many are willing to shoot their neighbor and contribute to the destruction of society because of the theater playing out in our government, politics, and media.
Here’s a hypothetical for you to digest:
Would even the people deepest in the MAGA movement want their children to exist in a world where they aren’t safe due to political violence and civil war? Could they reasonably protect them in such a reality?
There are millions of people in the US - if there was really an appetite for mass violence in the populace, it would’ve already revealed itself.
This is insane logic to me when the president is clearly gearing up to do violence against the people, and the violent rhetoric is at an all time high.
“it hasn’t happened yet, so it wont happen despite all the signs saying it will” is such a bad take its unimaginably bad.
Accept that we are relatively peaceful in modern times and rethink your beliefs.
There are literally multiple genocides happening right now. There are literally people being disappeared off the streets with no trials, identification and we don’t know where they are ending up.
This is just an insane take.
They fucking stormed the capital!
Would even the people deepest in the MAGA movement want their children to exist in a world where they aren’t safe due to political violence and civil war?
Yes??? Are you not hearing these people. Holy fuck.
This is a new level of sticking ones head in the sand.
Could they reasonably protect them in such a reality?
No, but they value hate above incredible personal sacrifice, hence their voting choices.
This is insane logic to me when the president is clearly gearing up to do violence against the people, and the violent rhetoric is at an all time high.
And yet he hasn’t been able to - because despite all the propaganda, he can’t justify it to his base. They have to resort to playing old protest footage and making up easily disprovable lies to rile people up - does that not read as desperate to you?
People are not taking the bait on either side. Stop acting like he (and the people influencing him) already won. They haven’t, and they won’t.
There are literally multiple genocides happening right now.
Despite the world population exploding, there has historically been much worse happening - and at much greater scales.
There are literally people being disappeared off the streets with no trials, identification and we don’t know where they are ending up.
Which unfortunately isn’t an entirely new occurrence if you look it up. These people have been living here and working here in massive amounts, and they have always lived under the threat of deportation, discrimination, and living as modern slaves - with very little recourse.
Under this administration, it’s certainly much more well-funded, it’s much more chaotic, it’s much more performative in the way it’s being done, and people being denied due process and getting shipped away to death camps and countries they’ve never been to is obviously extremely concerning and is not a positive trajectory (and is not performative, it’s very real).
It’s not an indicator that there is a civil war on the horizon though.
They fucking stormed the capital!
Everybody was free to do something tangible about that, including the people who held power after that event.
Yes??? Are you not hearing these people. Holy fuck.
No, you are hearing the most vocal and insane examples through social media and other forms of media. Most people are not violent, believing others need to be shot because their politics differ. People are densely packed in with each other and nobody has fortresses besides the very rich. A civil war is not sustainable anywhere here in the US.
No, but they value hate above incredible personal sacrifice, hence their voting choices.
They are being manipulated into believing this is a matter of survival. They are led to believe that they are 1) voting in their best interest 2) that if they vote differently, people will take what they earned and worked hard for 3) that the other side is demonic, woke, and ineffectual. Hate doesn’t factor into the equation for most of these people.
The world is a different place outside of social media and partisan media. Ground yourself, considering connecting with your community by attending an event or group or potentially volunteering your time, and understand that things are not always exactly how they are presented by those that literally thrive on our attention.
77 million people voted for Trump. There are over 340 million people in the US. Let that sink in and please consider reevaluating your beliefs.
Proclaiming Matthew 25 would diffuse a large part of what is going on - that’s how much of a house of cards this all is.
Interesting that you think illegal kidnapping, unabated corruption, and disassembly of government institutions is theater.
I can say safely that it’s set in the context of theater with all the propaganda flying around, but there are real things happening through carefully crafted circumstances and framing. If you understood my intentions you would realize what I really meant instead of smearing me.
