• BlueFootedPetey@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    I didnt think feeling safe was why liberals where buying guns. I thought it was to make oppressors and aggressors feel less safe.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Guns are literally an oppressive force. The second amendment people are ready to kill those who try to stop ICE or change the government in a way they don’t like. Their threat is literally murder, but sure more guns will solve this problem.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Semantics. There are more guns in the US than people in the US. Guns are an oppressive force themselves in these extreme circumstances.

          No different than having land mines all over at this point. People die needlessly due to proliferation thus creating an oppressive force without 2nd amendment gun nutters.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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            6 days ago

            People aren’t claiming that they love guns, or gun violence. The point is that gun reform is dead for the foreseeable future. And since we are all forced to live in a society with gun proliferation, it makes sense that fascist shouldn’t be the only ones with guns.

            • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              Yeah, this is just learned helplessness wrapped up in a pretty bow.

              What makes sense is dealing with the problem. We can’t regulate guns, but we can regulate bathrooms!?

              Yeah, I am not buying it. Also, people are claiming they love guns and plenty love war as well. My daughter’s coworkers had a spirited conversation about how we should just rip off the bandaid and invade Canada and Mexico.

              Clearly there is something wrong with our society and the proliferation of guns is just another symptom that needs to be managed as you would any disease.

              • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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                5 days ago

                Yeah, this is just learned helplessness wrapped up in a pretty bow.

                Lol, arming yourself against fascist is totally learned helplessness…

                I just think you are either delusional, in denial, or completely ignorant of the state of current affairs in the US, if you think we have any chance of gun reform with the current supreme court.

                What makes sense is dealing with the problem. We can’t regulate guns, but we can regulate bathrooms!?

                The people who want to protect fun laws currently hold the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court which also have a very conservative interpretation of the constituonal amendment that protects firearms. They are also the same people who want to regulate bathrooms.

                How do you suppose we enact firearms regulations?

                Also, people are claiming they love guns and plenty love war as well. My daughter’s coworkers had a spirited conversation about how we should just rip off the bandaid and invade Canada and Mexico.

                I was talking about the people in this current forum…

                Clearly there is something wrong with our society and the proliferation of guns is just another symptom that needs to be managed as you would any disease.

                Yeah… No shit. There are literallly fascist running the government.

                I would love to live in a society where I don’t have to think about gun violence, that would be rad. It’s just clearly not the society we currently inhabit, and ignoring that fact does not make you any safer.

                You might have the privilege of living in a more civil part of the country. I on the other hand am in an interracial marriage in the most violent and racist state in the union. So excuse me if I teach my friends and family how to defend themselves and build a mutual defence network among other minorities and the queer community.

                • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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                  5 days ago

                  Pretending you are not engaging in learned helpless is pretty silly as it is obvious you are. Clearly you don’t understand what is really going on, and that is okay. Fascism is not new, not even a little bit.

                  There are so many good solutions to our issues and the fact that you haven’t even spent time thinking about them is very telling. Instead you are a reactionary. Guns will never make our society safer, if they did we would be the safest society in the world already.

                  I have seen the damage gun culture does to the minority and queer community. The needless deaths and violence. Pushed by those who are mentally ill professing perverse defense fantasies created by the marketing department of gun manufacturers.

                  Just another fascist cog doing exactly what your are supposed to.

  • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    This meme assumes liberals, or the left broadly construed, view guns in the same way.

    Conservatives want to bring their AR-15 into Burger King, because they view guns as a sort of magic totem of protection.

    Of the left gun owners I know, liberals, Anarchists, Marxists, etc. They have a far more grounded view of guns, and see them much more for the tool that they are.

  • laranis@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    Traditional gun enthusiasts have “their scenario”. That is, the thing they think they will need their cache of ARs and survival gear and 10k rounds. SHTF, end of the world as we know it, meth addled home intruder, zombie apocalypse, whatever.

    I think folks on the left never had “their scenario” and correctly assessed the odds of those scenarios happening was low. So, logically, no need to arm themselves.

    Those odds have changed and we’ve been watching those scenarios play out live on social media. Leftists have taken notice and are adjusting their relationship with firearms appropriately.

    • FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, well said. I’m a pro gun progressive but there limits to gun ownership. Sometimes the Calvary is not coming and the only way to protect ourselves is to buy and use guns

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I’ve always been of the belief that more guns cause more death, and I still hold that belief.

    However, the last decade has proven to me that this country is far too stupid to maintain a democracy so, unfortunately, the guns are necessary, because things are about to get a whole lot sketchier in this nation. And as things degrade, I need protection, particularly from low IQ aggressive conservatives.

  • texture@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    yeah its amazing to me that the country with more guns than people is as of late surging to get more guns. the craziest part is, its really hard to blame the leftists for this conclusion, given the context.

    • SparroHawc@lemmy.zip
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      7 days ago

      The thing is, the guns are largely concentrated in the hands of people that make the left feel unsafe - and recent events have caused the left to feel even less safe about the situation. Now the liberals are arming up to balance out the equation a bit, and that’s driving a big part of the surge.

      • texture@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        thats basically how i understand it, yes.

        i dont feel comfortable conflating leftism with liberalism, but thats another can of semantic worms.

        • SparroHawc@lemmy.zip
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          6 days ago

          Yeah, sorry - I spent too many years hearing the right complain about libruls as if the term encompassed everything to their left, and I still haven’t completely untangled that knot in my brain.

  • apftwb@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I don’t know. MAGA Marty is probably not to worried about a tyrannical government kicking in their door.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Firearm sales in USA have TRIPLED since 2000

    Every state is involved in their production, even Hawaii; according to the gun makers, anyway. Way more than most people realize.

    https://www.nssf.org/government-relations/impact/

    foreign military sales have quintupled or so since 2000, depending on who you want to use as a source.

    Last time I checked, US has as much military spending as the top 10 spenders combined, including China and Russia. Sources disagree somewhat depending on what you consider to be military spending.

    https://www.visualcapitalist.com/largest-defense-budgets-in-the-world/

    Chances are very good the USA arms your country; we do make the very best in weapons, since we have been at war since 1911

    The USA has been smuggling weapons since the Brown Bess rifle

  • BanMe@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I remember when the world entered the information age and wars started being fought by information instead of bullets but people still want you to believe gun ownership is going to keep you safe somehow against misinformation in the information age we now live in

        • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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          8 days ago

          Life isn’t a video game.

          Ask a real world security professional and they’ll tell you to get a dog.

          A gun salesman will tell you that if you buy a gun you automatically become Annie Oakley

          • Protoknuckles@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            I think we’re talking two different things. I’m not saying to buy a giant handgun and wait for robbers to come into your house so you can blast them away.

            I’ve known people who fantasize about that. They are gross.

            What I’m saying is that the police in the United States have a history of shooting dogs, so they do absolutely nothing for you anti-fascist security. They would absolutely help against theft and robbery because most robbers want to be quick and quiet. Police don’t care.

            • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              7 days ago

              But so a gun doesn’t help either. It just means they call SWAT and take you down with superior numbers and firepower, doesn’t it?

              The only real place where a gun helps is in an actual civil war, or possibly against a single non-governmental bad guy (with risk of being shot yourself as well).

          • butwhyishischinabook@piefed.social
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            8 days ago

            I have a dog. I’m also surrounded by fascists in the deep south. I’m keeping guns because I’d rather live than die for some abstract moral point you’re trying to make about how we should live in a fantasy land where people in fascists states don’t need guns.

          • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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            8 days ago

            Ask a real world security professional and they’ll tell you to get a dog.

            I am a (former) real world security professional.

            And I’ll say that a gun is much easier to carry around with you than a dog.

            • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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              7 days ago

              Look up MOVE.

              Philadelphia police bombed a house in the middle of the city.

              If it comes to an armed conflict, I really doubt that the folks who couldn’t get Bernie nominated are going to win a firefight.

              Stop living in videogame land.

          • Lexam@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            We don’t know that. It might be, and unfortunately I think who ever is playing has gotten bored.

        • lennybird@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          By that logic, a gun won’t either. Many gun owners are shot by police. If you shoot back at an unlawful entrance, they just bring more. They don’t really care. Power disparity is too great already.

          This fight is won elsewhere.

          • The_Lurker@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            The fight was lost in the Supreme Court. 42 USC §1988 was explicitly set up to grant civil rights attorneys fees if they won their claim (and it costs a lot to prosecute a civil rights claim). But lawyers and firms would accept winnable civil rights cases on the basis that they would eventually get paid. That came to a halt in 2001 in 532 US 598, decided on May 2001, which talked about the rights of the “prevailing party” to be paid. In function, it killed civil rights litigation.

            Buckhannon Board & Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Department of Health & Human Resources https://www.oyez.org/cases/2000/99-1848

            The police shooting people because they have or might have guns is a clear violation of the 2nd amendment right to carry. (ACLU never got involved because they don’t take 2nd amendment cases).

            But here’s the thing. Cops don’t arrest right wing armed protesters. Why do you think that is? Cops are willing to shoot unarmed protesters in wheelchairs, but fail to move on a fat out of shape protestor with an AR-15. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/25/protests-houston-police-shoot-unarmed-man-wheelchair

            “Winning” requires multiple fronts, from civil resistance and disobedience, to openly carrying protests, to voting, to boycotts, to lawsuits, to just simply speaking out when something isn’t right. And proposing alternative solutions.

            • lennybird@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              But here’s the thing. Cops don’t arrest right wing armed protesters. Why do you think that is?

              Oh I know exactly why that is.

            • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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              8 days ago

              Yeah the dog thing is silly too.

              An organized and effective political movement is what will protect us, not weapons.

                • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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                  7 days ago

                  I don’t see how the weapons will be useful honestly. Iran has a very well armed military and they’re almost totally powerless before the US military. Military conflict is perhaps the singular thing fascists are best at. I’d rather attack my enemies where they are weak instead of where they are strong.

                  I mean I’m not opposed to people being armed but it really should be viewed as a last resort to hurt your enemies as much as possible before you’re totally wiped out rather than a realistic path to political change.

        • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          I know that the second a gun is brought into a house the members of the household are significantly more likely to be shot. I believe it’s because of the number of gun related suicides as well as the risk of a negligent discharge.

          • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            This is true, but in a vacuum in a life-threatening situation a gun is better than a dog for defending yourself. And also does not require you to intentionally put an innocent creature in harm’s way. And also does not require nearly as much upkeep as a dog.

            But you are correct, the presence of a gun does statically increase your risk of being shot. And that is something worth considering.

            Edit: and furthermore if you buy a guard dog, your risk of being mauled by a dog will likewise go up.

      • Elting@piefed.social
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        8 days ago

        A claw hammer would be a better option than a gun. Why does everyone assume that a gun would be the best thing to defend yourself with in all situations.

        • Wakmrow@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Ok you bring a claw hammer and I’ll bring a rifle we’ll test your theory out

              • Elting@piefed.social
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                8 days ago

                I can grab it at a moments notice as it can safely be left out, you don’t have to load it or aim it so using it is fast and simple. If its my home they’re invading I know where to hide. I trust my ability to swing and hit someone in a panic far more than I do my ability to handle a gun under the same pressure. Its just going to be easier and more reliable to hit someones head with a hammer than it will be to shoot them.

                • butwhyishischinabook@piefed.social
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                  8 days ago

                  Unlike you, I actually train with my gun so we have very different concerns when under pressure. Mine relate more to not getting killed to make some kind of moral stand about how guns are bad in all contexts.

                • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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                  8 days ago

                  it can safely be left out

                  Honestly, I wouldn’t leave hammers lying around where kids could get to them any more than guns. The hammer will be less deadly, sure, but a dumb kid will still cause a lot of damage with it.

                  you don’t have to load it

                  True

                  or aim it

                  False, lol. You out there protecting yourself with unaimed hammer swings?

                  I trust my ability to swing and hit someone in a panic far more than I do my ability to handle a gun under the same pressure.

                  Skill issue. Requires training time.

                • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  The only advantage I agree with is the ability to leave a hammer out versus a gun, and that’s only in cases of having small children at home. If your gun is for self-defense, it would make more sense to keep it loaded and easily accessible.

                  I have to say it’s a very strange stance to prefer to defend yourself within arm’s reach of an assailant versus at a distance. I think you’re also giving yourself a lot of credit when you say you’d be more confident swinging a hammer with enough accuracy and strength to incapacitate someone while panicking. Better hope you get them in one swing.

        • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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          8 days ago

          Unless you’re fighting nails, a claw hammer is not not the best thing to defend yourself with in any situation.

  • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    Conservatives want guns to protect themselves from a bunch of DEI boogymen that don’t exist. The left is buying guns to protect themselves from the boogymen that are currently publicly stripping away/violating their rights while doing multiple genocides.

    Trying to act like the two groups are the same makes you either a boldfaced liar or an idiot. But hey, at least you get to be smugly superior with your snappy little meme.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I don’t think ‘feeling safe’ is the goal so much as the understanding that the Nazis are making a huge comeback, and that votes and protest signs don’t generally do a great job of killing Nazis.

    Like, if you’re going down anyway, might as well bag a few Nazis on your way out; or maybe you see some Nazis harrassing someone and you’re a safe distance away with a rifle.

    So… you could be part of solving a gigantic problem, but it will 100% not make you safe. To the contrary, it’ll make you a target.