Hello comrades! Friendly reminder that American leftists continue to be threatened by gun loving conservatives. You should know how to defend yourself and you should probably own a gun. Find an active SRA, John Brown Gun Club, or (if things are dire) pink pistols or other "apolitical" gun club.
I've been in the SRA for 4 years, it's not great, but I met comrades local to me. I've learned a lot from them and fash who post good firearms advice and I love to share that when I can.
Open for questions and I'll post more getting started stuff if this doesn't get banned.
It has been shown repeatedly that owning a gun makes you less safe. It increases the likelihood that you will be the victim of a crime, homicide, or suicide (accidental or otherwise).
Point taken. I agree with you. I've always agreed with those facts.
But there's an armed an increasingly well trained and organized movement of would be brown shirts. They've repeatedly shown their willingness to escalate violence at protests and threaten violence towards LGBT events. They've demonstrated a willingness to act on the federal government with violence. And huge swathsof that population are police.
They have guns. I'm in a queer relationship. I'm a target. I have guns.
Completely fair. Since your eyes are wide open, I respect you and your choices. I know I can be too preachy sometimes, but I wish you the best. I genuinely hope you never need your gun.
The "victim of a crime, homicide" thing is likely just a correlation. If person is more likely to be in danger, they are more likely to have a gun.
I've seen some people posit that the Black Panther's armed patrols deterred police violence in their communities. On the other hand, I guess their leaders were eventually killed by the Feds. As a side effect, the Black Panthers also caused governments and the NRA to support gun control, lol.
Study after study has shown that having a gun in the home was linked with nearly three times higher odds that someone would be killed at home by a family member or intimate acquaintance.
more permissive gun laws are making people less safe. In the states with the weakest gun laws, gun deaths rose 46 percent from 2012 to 2020, compared with just a 7 percent increase in the states with the strongest gun laws over that same period. Source
This is something I also struggle with. So much of the lefty philosophy is around acknowledging and respecting everyone as intrinsically human with a life worth preserving. Often I have a hard time hating the average Trump supporter or fascist shill because I know there's a million factors out of their control that got them there.
I have to remind myself constantly that my life is worth more than someone's who's chosen to harm another.
Guns aren't for everyone and I understand that. I don't think I could ever become a partisan in a revolution but I don't intend to be a statistic. If you do choose to have a weapon for self defense please at least train with it. Even pepper spray you can get refillable water squirting versions.
If you do want to try guns one day, I'd suggest a Pistol Caliber Carbine like the Ruger PCC. It shoots pistol rounds out of a carbine/rifle so it's much easier to control. The rifle in this picture is a KP-9.