Are you considering purchasing a gun?

specifically, the class was on handguns, and handguns are for killing people, whereas rifles are often used for hunting animals. I guess, technically, one could use a handgun to put down a suffering animal, but the thought of saying, "Fuck, your cat got hit by a car, brb gonna get my .45" I dunno, maybe where I grew up, but living in a city, it sounds ridic.

kingfish, ya. the same people in my family that own a gun have an axe or even a good bat for protection

all their firearms are sealed and not loaded, as is the law

by the time you get it, load it, you are dead already

One of the bits about pistol ownership that always sticks in my head is that I remember something Robert Evans(the younger one) wrote, about how many shots cops take and miss, and these are people who are professionally required to put in regular range time.

I've shot handguns at gun ranges over the years, not a total noob but not super experienced either

I've been considering buying one since the election

I guess it has come to this: a recognition that our society is revealing its latent potential for fascism very openly now, and with that a fear of others and a desire to protect myself from racist mobs / the security state

but: a family member died from gun-related violence and I don't want that pattern to click into place for me too and that's just more likely than some valiant heroics on my part

so . . . I'm not sure it's a good idea to sign on for the proliferation of guns in a society already deeply fucked by their over-proliferation

i guess its cultural. while i think shooting and hunting can be fun, i think there isn't enough regulation and the process to acquire any firearm is too lenient

Yeah; firearms are for taking a bunch of pumkins and bottles and beat-up cats in the Gorge or the desert or 4-square miles of empty farmland and blasting at shit like once a year or two, then you secure everything and lock 'em in your offsite storage locker and forget about them for 12 months.

Beat-up cars, rather. Cats presumably wouldn't like participating in this.

I was like, you've already punched the shit out of those poor cats, why are you shooting them, too? Rude.

was out shooting with a sniper and he didnt even need to be in a tactical shooting position to hit a few bullseye with an assault rifle

scary but that's why he was special forces

exactly, kingfish

Recently my father moved into assisted living and I had to take custody of his large gun collection. If money for his care runs low, I'll be forced to sell them to a dealer. I'd rather keep them out of circulation. They don't make me feel safer and I don't think putting them back on the market would make anyone else safer.

So far axes, clawhammers and the classic baseball bat.

I'm really curious about other weapons because I'd assume most people considering a gun but worried about endangering themselves and their family would get other things first. But is there a likelihood that your attacker will also have a gun, so a baseball bat won't be much comfort?

Crossbows? Things you can throw?

If some people use an empty gun to scare, are there people with fake grenades and fake rocket launchers?

Don't live in the USA, therefore no need of a gun.

― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Tuesday, November 22, 2016 10:36 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not in the USA, no need. The concept of carrying or even owning a gun is utterly alien to me. And I realize that's a very privileged way to feel about this.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, November 22, 2016 11:33 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm guessing you both live in developed countries because there are places in the world that aren't the USA where the inhabitants would argue that they need guns.

is there anyone on ilx who lives in "the third world"?

I think darragh is the closest

does China qualify

whatver, it just seemed like a weird thing to say. "gotta make sure to raz the USA here"

*deleted a bad "Poster X lives in [US state name redacted]" joke*

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Crossbows, shall not be infringed

come at me xp

A crossbow bolt or bodkin arrow can penetrate modern standard-issue body armor, right

irish by birth mayoman by the grace of god

dicktown new jersey
blue ball pennsylvania
etc

My father's old handgun is somewhere in my mother's house (she's mentioned wanting to get rid of it, but whenever I talk to her she hasn't followed up on other things she means to do). My attitude on guns are that IF you are going to have any, 1) get yourself well and thoroughly trained, and 2) practice strict firearms safety.

In the last couple of weeks I have thought about emigrating to Germany. Not to the point of looking up the requirements, but thinking "Well, I could relearn German, and I could probably live for a while on my savings...."

whatver, it just seemed like a weird thing to say. "gotta make sure to raz the USA here"

Not at all, just stating a fact.

I'm not about to pull a Frederik and tell people in the USA how to live their lives.

i'm guessing you both live in developed countries because there are places in the world that aren't the USA where the inhabitants would argue that they need guns.

― a but (brimstead), Tuesday, November 22, 2016 9:16 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Define "developed". The Netherlands scoring way high on #trump2016wheredoImove lists on Reddit etc makes me smdh. This is a deeply racist, moronic country that will have it's own Trump moment very likely next March when Wilders will be the biggest party in the country. Every single day it gets worse and worse. This is too why I pay attention to brexit and Trump: we will be next. Bigotry's rise has a global appeal. Trump's rise, on the world scale, isn't an isolated thing.

My non-white s/o is on the receiving end of so much blatant racism that we are seriously looking where to go, where live our life and have a future without racism when we can financially afford a move. My deepest fear is that no such place exists, anywhere. And I truly would go anywhere to be with her in a place where racism isn't this explicit. For I am sick to my stomach of it, But I don't know man..

Only thing is: guns, yeah, owning or carrying, it doesn't exist here. Alien concept. But that doesn't make it better here than in other "developed" countries or other...

is there anyone on ilx who lives in "the third world"?

― harold melvin and the bluetones (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, November 22, 2016 2:17 PM (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think darragh is the closest

― iatee, Tuesday, November 22, 2016 2:18 PM (forty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gree hee hee

Are you really comfortable to use "third world" (or even "developed world") in such a throwaway way in 2016? I'm not.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

that's for self-reported gun ownership i believe

whatver, it just seemed like a weird thing to say. "gotta make sure to raz the USA here"

Not at all, just stating a fact.

― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Tuesday, November 22, 2016 12:47 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol god i am dense.. sorry Tom, and LBI, the context is quite obvious now

[/not sarcastic, sincere]

I'm considering purchasing one of these:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/Love_gun_cover.jpg

Slightly more seriously, as I wrote here - Reveal Your Uncool Conservative Beliefs Here

- I can kind of understand people who don't strictly speaking *need* a gun, but who like having them nonetheless. One might just think they're interesting objects.

Definitely not something I'll ever be interested in - and not just because I share the concerns of other ilx0rz with small kids. Guns just fundamentally don't "go" with my lifestyle and culture and neighborhood and worldview.

But I don't automatically assume gun owners/enthusiasts are right-wingnuts, tea partiers, survivalists, or bloodthirsty maniacs.

Thread has this stuck in my head

Hey kids!
You want a soundtrack that's gonna make you feel tense?
Let you express your frustration?
Make ya scared, wanna, wanna run out and buy a gun?

may as well raise my unrealistic idea again:

wish we could just ban personal gun ownership and then allow people to rent them at shooting ranges, secure property with deer and other animals, etc. that would help to eliminate the recreational argument that people make to justify owning guns even though it results in so many people dying unnecessarily each year.

alternative is to allow gun ownership but heavily restrict ammunition ownership (i.e. only available at gun ranges or something)

or, limited amount each year for hunting, something like that

gun b&b

ILX 2020: Are you considering downprinting a gun?

Y'all know that many people make their own ammunition - melting metals, using molds, adding powder - right?

A kit to make your own bullets costs like $250 or something.

can't beat the taste of homemade bullets hot from the barrel just like grandma made

the shop-bought ones just don't kill the same

gun nuts are probably all going to die from lead poisoning anyway

i could consider owning a gun (of whatever type) because, well, history can turn in some ugly directions and i could imagine it being a useful skill to have. right-wing boogeymen of rampaging crime or tyrannical gov't don't mean anything to me, but if you add up political and economic sclerosis, a fractured angry society and climate change, the chances of a general breakdown in stability sometime in my lifetime are... not zero.

not that being able to shoot means you'd survive any of that. we all probably watch too many movies.

however i think it's possible (shows what i know?) to own a gun but store it offsite, at a range? i don't want one in the house.

This will sound simplistic and dumb but I want to live in a world where I don't feel like I need a gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX9rN7li8Sg

Do you mean world or country?

Yeah, I should of wrote country.

I grew up with a gun-nut grandfather, and am kind of happy he passed before the fox news era as it would probably have seriously tainted my thoughts about him. He kept a tiny, allegedly illegal .25 in his office desk, a loaded police-style (shorter barrel, higher capacity, absolutely not for hunting) shotgun in the closet at my house when he lived with me, taught me to make homemade silencers, and once told my uncle to act cool when they got pulled over because he had a handgun under the seat and sure as hell wasn't going to tell the cop about it.

My wife's family is full of avid hunters, the kind of people that don't really oppose sensible gun control, use guns as tools to pursue a hobby, and get mad when people assume they're like fetishists like my grandfather.

So I was super familiar with them grew up with a healthy respect, but don't hunt and have never had a need for one. I thought about buying one after the election, just out out of sheer gut-reaction fear and terror but doubht I will. I want my son to learn to shoot to demystify guns and understand the seriousness one needs in handling them, but I'm more worried about him finding it in the house when he gets older. And if all the actual nazis a couple hours east of here ever come to purge the intellectuals from the university where I work, they're going to be way more heavily armed than I would be.

I do think it would kind of funny to write a clickbaity "Liberals should stockpile guns" thinkpiece to get people riled up. And I am getting my kid a passport - Canada's only a couple hours north.

guns aren't really mysterious nor does one need to learn how to shoot them in order to take them seriously

(sorry)

i've definitely thought about buying a gun before because i think about all kinds of things

I grew up around hunters and was forced to hunt as a kid. Almost all of my coworkers hunt and a few stockpile guns. I'm not afraid of guns. I know an equal amount of people who hate guns and love them and it squarely follows party lines/who they voted for, at least in my experience. I do feel like it might be good to buy one in the future and I don't like that feeling.