Are you considering purchasing a gun?

It's cute that Karl thinks there are visitors arriving, reading things, and leaving.

It will just be the same couple dozen people arguing over stupid things until we're dead.

Perhaps we can establish an ILX retirement home where we can sit in rocking chairs with laprobes and ear trumpets and rehash old disputes.

I picture all of you looking like the ranger from Yogi Bear

lots of people arrive, read and leave!

didn't we figure out once that 9 out of 10 ILX users is a lurker?

or ILX views, rather

9 out of every 10 ILX users is a lurker, but 10 out of every 10 lurkers are Chris Martin from Coldplay

Perhaps we can establish an ILX retirement home where we can sit in rocking chairs with laprobes and ear trumpets and rehash old disputes.

Constantly boring each nurse and attendant with reminders of their first mention

I've mentioned it on other threads, but we own a gun. Have belonged to various leftist gun clubs, none at the moment.

congrats

Show up after nearly a month of not posting to make a snarky one word remark, how bout fuck you

What is your gun for? Who do you intend to kill with it?

tbh, one can be against the country's fetishization of guns and also simultaneously feel so fearful of the armed contingent in this country that they feel safer having one in their house. i know one of you will probably cite 70 studies showing how it's "not actually safer", but it's kinda counterproductive to do the "demonize poster who says he has a gun" every time it crops up itt

Assuming they gun for you first of course. Like, that’s what “self defense” means, right?

if I had my druthers every gun would be instantly melted by Optimus Prime but I also recognize not everybody lives in the same quiet quaint suburb neighborhood that I do

but it's kinda counterproductive to do the "demonize poster who says he has a gun" every time it crops up itt

especially when that poster isn't waiving it around like a yahoo on the thread.

the "I'd feel safer" thing is also something I understand; even if I was not completely anti-gun, I suck at stuff like first-person shooters and choke when it's time to fire, why should I think I would be any better with an actual gun

(and also suck at things that require precise movement and handling of cumbersome physical objects, e.g., aiming a gun)

well part of my suckiness at sports was because any time a ball would hit my hand I would freak out and just fling it aimlessly towards the basket. lots of airballs.

so a gun? yea, i'd probably be useless with it.

So, we lived in an area of the country that was very conservative, and we're queer leftists and one of us is brown. We received enough death threats and crazy Nazi tweakers stalking us to feel the need to purchase one.

Eventually, we moved. We probably go target shooting once a month or so just to keep everything in working order. For the most part it sits with a trigger lock in a double locked safe.

That's the reasoning. I don't like guns, really, or view them as fetish objects, but when someone with swastika tattoos is shooting a gun in the air outside your cabin, it feels a little better to have one by your side.

Tbh, we've thought about selling it or having it destroyed.

Certainly not to hold a candle to that, but to some similar extent, I had Nazis with AR-15s in trucks with the plates removed prowling the streets of my city, my neighborhood, not two blocks from my house, less than six months ago.

Like, at some point you have to accept that “this is really happening” and act accordingly

And you can’t call the cops, because the cops are on their side

The keeping it locked away part is what's important, I think, especially if you or anyone around you ever gets drunk or does psychedelics.

I spent eight years living in Alaska, most of my family and friends there own guns; the cabin I lived in had about ten guns in it, none of them mine, but I happily helped process and eat the moose meat that came from said guns. And when a drunk neighbor started coming over in the middle of the night and harassing my cousin, I didn't try to stop her from getting a handgun for protection. So I'm not about to judge anyone for owning guns. On the other hand, I now have four stories of people I know/knew that ended with them getting shot in the head, either by themselves or by others, and that is four too many imo.

Agreed! That's why we keep it locked away, always. We're not paranoid about home invasions or anything now, but living in small rural towns can be...something else entirely.

Yeah, definitely. I just want people who haven't spent significant time around guns to know what they're getting themselves into when they buy a gun, especially a handgun. Know that you are now at greater risk of hurting yourself or being hurt, regardless of whether you think you're an exception to that statistic. Assume that the gun wants to kill someone, and that someone might be you, and treat it accordingly.

I think that too often, people think they're an exception and they have the presence of mind and the mental balance and whatever to safely carry a gun around. If my friend B. hadn't been steeped in that kind of gun culture where you always have your gun on you, I am 95% sure he would be alive today.

I'm sorry about your friend, Lily.

Thank you, table! He was a lovely person, and I miss him.

My situation is similar, almost exactly, to what Dan I describes. I'm guessing we live in the same city.

I grew up around guns but not excessively. My dad went bird hunting and my grandpa was a competitive shotgunner (and also much deeper into the "lifestyle", owned military rifles and pistols, as well as a box of .50cal tracer ammo for some reason#.

For years I had no contact with guns at all despite learning how to shoot as a kid, up until the aforementioned Nazis and their cop pals decided to flex a bit. Now I have one of my dad's shotguns and an old .22 rifle of his as well. Not exactly high powered stuff but it all works. They're locked in a closet with trigger locks except when we take them out to practice and clean them. Not having kids makes it a lot easier on my psyche. The idea of carrying a firearm every day, open or concealed, is pretty terrifying to me. That said I do hope to figure out a way to go bird hunting sometime.

I should also note that my grandpa was one of the founding members of his state's Veterans for Peace branch, and was arrested in anti-war demonstrations many times over the years.

He also was a lifelong member of the NRA and the faculty advisor for the rifle club at the school where he taught.

In other words, not all people who own and operate firearms are loons.

A claim made by loons and non-loons alike

Within the USA firearms have a very limited utility for purposes other than killing or maiming humans. But it is worth conceding that such highly limited utility exists and is legitimate, so that those who are suspicious of new gun laws can see that advocates of such laws are not blind to the tiny slice of uses guns can be put to. Blanket denial of such utility only obstructs dialogue with the saner inhabitants of rural America.

To be clear, target shooting for its own sake does not qualify as 'utility'. It's a hobby at best. Most hunting and a few pest control applications do qualify. Firing a gun within city limits by anyone is an awful idea 99.99% of the time.

tbh, one can be against the country's fetishization of guns and also simultaneously feel so fearful of the armed contingent in this country that they feel safer having one in their house. i know one of you will probably cite 70 studies showing how it's "not actually safer", but it's kinda counterproductive to do the "demonize poster who says he has a gun" every time it crops up itt

― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Monday, November 9, 2020 6:53 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

people who have handguns suck imo

no offense

i don't have a gun so that's for someone else

bump

jfc not now

.

Halfway there meself tbh

Don’t bother, you won’t be able to buy ammo for the next 12 months.

leave the guns to the people with death wishes

no ammo allowed across the non-existent sea border

with every passing day these times make me more & more picture myself owning a 12 gauge shotgun

there is a lot of ~atonement~ needed

Today I decided that I am going to. I am going to wait until things are a bit safer after COVID, and then do some safety trainings and practice at a range, and then I will purchase one. I'm going to keep it fully locked up and not readily accessible -- I'm not going to sleep waiting for an ordinary burglar I can blow away. But if shit gets really bad, I will have it.

Ok dude have fun having a gun in the same house as your children let us know how that plays out

Freak

I’ll look for you on the news

Are you going to tell your children’s friends’ parents there’s a gun in the house so they can make an informed decision about whether their children are allowed over?

Guess you’re betting your kids won’t ever be depressed

Just move to the West Bank already

You ok?

Are you?