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I’m not queer (though I consider myself an ally) I will be buying a gun because my last name and skin tone goes against Fürer Orange ideal master race.
I fear there’s going to be violence. You’d be insane to not prepare for that.
I’m generally in favor of gun ownership, and in favor of mandatory training. I wish the government would provide/pay for training, but I wish a lot of things.
Before buying a gun, please consider:
How will you safely store it? Are children Ever over at your house? Can you access it from storage in an emergency?
Where, and when can you practice using your gun in a safe location? Typically, this means going to a range. It’s best if you know an existing gun owner/range member to help you the first time. If you buy a gun, you should safely operate it on at least two days, to build familiarity.
What kind of gun suits your needs? Rifles are better for hunting, and other situations where time is readily available. Handguns are easier to conceal, store, and use. Shotguns are better at hitting things with poor aim, but they hit a lot of other things, too. Most guns are designed to fire one shape of cartridge (generally specified as a diameter and a length), but can support multiple types of bullet (full metal jacket, hollow point, and green tip are fairly common for rifles and pistols. Bird shot, buck shot, and slugs are common for shotguns).
Not all cheap guns are bad, and not all expensive guns are good. Generally, more popular cartridges and guns are preferable, because it makes obtaining ammunition, maintaining the weapon, and knowing of any design issues easier.
Accessories (especially a flashlight, or sights suited to the expected use) can improve the usefulness of a gun significantly. You will also generally want eye and ear protections for range use, and at least cotton swabs, a lubricant, and a bore rope to clean and maintain your gun.
Do you know your rights? Do you know the laws applicable in your area? In some states, there are laws about which guns you can buy, how you can transport them, how you can carry them, how you can store them, and how you can use them. You should know the requirements for lawful self defense (Andrew Branca’s five elements is my favorite explanation). In all 50 states, there are laws about who can buy guns, and some restrictions about where you can buy guns. There are restrictions on how you can modify guns that apply in all 50 states.
If you can afford training, look up the instructor you will have. The individual instructor makes a lot more difference than the facility or institution, IMO.
If you, or a loved one that will have access to your firearm are, or could be suicidal, be aware, and act accordingly, that easy access to a firearm is a risk factor for suicide.
If your gun fails to fire, or sounds weak when you pull the trigger, keep the barrel pointed in a safe direction. This can be a delayed ignition, or a squib. Both are extremely dangerous. After two minutes (longer if you don’t have a clock, and are just counting it out), you can open the chamber, remove the cartridge, and ensure that the barrel is free of obstructions. Depending on the kind of gun, this may be by running a bore rope through, or by looking from the chamber end of the barrel through towards the muzzle. If the barrel is obstructed, take it to a professional without firing it again… If this happens more than one time, throw out your ammo, find a new ammo supplier, and make sure that your ammo is exposed to minimal moisture in storage.
Finally, the axioms of gun safety:
Treat every gun as if it is loaded. Even when you have checked, continue to practice safe handling.
Never point a gun at something you are unwilling to destroy.
Know your target, and what is behind your target.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
Not queer here, but I will stand and fight along side my queer friends and family to protect them.
A lot of people around here who don’t know what project 2025 says to do to queer people. Also a lot of people being strangely anti gun about this. So what, you think the solution is to sit back and do nothing? Do you think individual trans people are capable of sby themselves overturning gun legislation and having all the transphobes guns taken away?
Fascists have guns. The police sure as fuck isn’t going to start taking their guns away. The laws are not changing. If the state won’t protect you, if the state is trying to harm you, your only choice is to arm yourself.
I do think America needs better mental healthcare and maybe some licensing requirements on firearms.
I also think those licenses should let me buy any firearm if I pass the qualifications.
But I digress, an armed minority is harder to oppress. If every time the feds try to arrest someone, it turns into fucking wako, they will be more hesitant to harass people.
This is funny to me because this assumes they don’t already own guns and don’t know how to use them effectively.
That is actually not such an unreasonable assumption. Yes there are groups like Pink P who help arm and train LGBT folks. But someone who is LGBT is much more likely to be on the liberal side of things, urban rather than rural, and thus less exposure to civilian gun ownership.
There is also a lot of stigma among liberals. I have heard from a number of LGBT folks that it was far easier to come out to their Republican friends as gay than their Democratic friends as owning a gun- Republicans disapprove of gay people a lot less than Democrats disapprove of gun owners.
My unregistered rifle:
Arm the oppressed
But if you do get one make sure to maintain it and your skills with it so that you use, clean, and store it safely and are effective if you do use it.
God damn right! If you are new to guns though please go take a safety class first, the hunter safety course (even if you don’t hunt) is a wonderful intro imo, and typically free/cheap. Took it when I was 11ish and it did a great job getting me in the mindset of always being conscious of where I point the muzzle of my firearms.
All this is from a pretty staunch gun advocate too (although I am extremely open to and encourage discussions around how to regulate them a bit more).
Agreed. I own guns. I go target shooting for fun once in a while. I hope to never use them against a person, and I think we need to reform gun laws.
But I also think more people should be arming themselves against the apparent threat.
I hope to never use them against a person
Me too. The absolute last thing I want, again as a staunch gun advocate, is to ever have to use it in a real life situation for about a half dozen reasons.
I took a concealed carry class to get my permit some years ago, which I recommend even if your state doesn’t require a CC permit. They had a retired sheriff and a lawyer for two of the instructors, they went through multiple scenarios of both when do you use it and what will happen afterward. I NEVER want to have to fire a firearm in self defense, I will but I literally have to feel like my life or the life of someone else is in IMMEDIATE danger. Even then you run the risk of missing and hitting an innocent bystander, police typically only have a 70% hit rate across 2 shots (unverified, could be wrong).
It’s amazing how whatever is going on in politics, the gun industry always seems to win.
My cautionary tale is that I knew a guy from my childhood whose wife was raped in a break in. He bought a gun to keep around the house for protection, and the wife killed herself with it.
That is unfortunately not surprising. ©PTSD can be super rough and horrible
As a progressive gun owner, mental health is part of being a responsible gun owner.
If your wife is suicidal, don’t have a gun she can access.
The thing about suicidal people is they don’t always let you know. For those who have survived a traumatic event, the urge can be overwhelming and come from seemingly no where.
Also, is that something you would say to someone face after their wife committed suicide? “Well it’s your fault because you should have known,”? That sounds incredibly insensitive and out of touch.
Not disputing any of your first paragraph.
As for your second: No, it isn’t. Luckily I didn’t.
Neither the unpredictability of suicide nor your implication that I would say what I said to someone completely different diminishes the necessity of the second amendment to protect people like those mentioned in the OP.
Especially sad because every extra gun that is added is just more opportunity for innocents in the line of fire to get gunned down.
There’s no “bad-guy-seeking-bullets.” This ain’t Roger Rabbit.
I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again:
Having a weapon and not being in a large group in public just means the cops are more likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Especially in Trump’s America.
If you’re alone don’t give them a reason to believe you’re armed, because it will be used as a pretext to murder you.
The only time it works is if you’re in a large enough group and in a public space where the cops will draw unwanted attention to what they’re trying to do.
I mean, who wants to be taken alive by Nazis?
An LGBT person might decide that’s an acceptable risk if it allows them the chance to deter or prevent violence against them from the increased number of empowered bigots walking around in Trump’s America
Of course, I’m merely pointing out that it’s not a cure-all and people like Philando Castile learned the hard way that doing things legally doesn’t mean a cop won’t shoot you just because they’re scared. (Especially when you’re a minority)
It’s a protective measure that relies on: you never having more than one assailant, you being quicker on the draw than your assailant, and you being a really good shot under pressure. (That final one is what results in innocents deaths, and not enough people want to admit that they might not actually be that good of a shot.)
It’s why I personally prefer a couple high-powered flashlights. The best way to survive an altercation is to escape it.
Cops are not your friends
Cool, let’s arm both sides… The solution is always moar guns!
Omaha beach was invaded with flowers and poems…
Guns is how we solved the Nazi problem the first time. If you’ve got a better solution, we’re all ears.
Military action is how the Nazi military was defeated. Nazism was never defeated though. You must understand the US was very pro-Nazi before WWII. Wealthy private individuals from the US helped to find the Nazi party.
Later on, after the Nazi rose to power these same US individuals lobbied the governments of Europe and the US not to take the Jews in. The Nazi party originally wanted to expel all the Jews. This lead to the final solution and the murder of millions.
So it is more complex than guns kill Nazi. We were not the good guys in all this. I also think this has little to do with gun proliferation in the US and the lack of regulation causing untold suffering.
Yes, we know. What’s your better suggestion?
Moars guns will not solve our problem is my original statement.
What to do? Regulate heavily and reject gun culture as a mental illness would be the best way to deal with it.
Obviously gun corporations and gun nutters are going to reject this. The question then becomes are we going to let a minority hold our entire civilization hostage so they can make money and play with their toys?
It is very common for a gun nutter to threaten death on people, especially people who talk about regulating guns. This threat of violence is terroristic in nature.
Perhaps properly regulating is not an option due to the ridiculous amount of influence threatening to murder everyone is. This is basically where we are now with politicians to corrupt or scared to do anything.
I have also presented the idea that technology could solve the problem. The Igun from Apple with facial in recognition and a host of safety features that prevent accidental discharge into your family members.
I know gun nutters hate the idea of a smart gun, but this may be the way we actually start reducing our ridiculous amount of gun deaths.
We could also start actually studying the issue. Our government has been cock blocking any research on gun safety for over twenty years now. It is now the number one killer of children, but there was a nothing to see here, riiight?
A wasn’t asking how we should handle the problem of gun violence.
I asked for your better suggestion for how we should defend ourselves from these fucking Nazis.
That was kind of the whole point of the discussion. Let me catch you up. Moar guns doesn’t solve the problem. Most people that are arguing against this are using some form of a defense fantasy to support their reasoning. They are imagining a threat and then justify their actions based on that imagined threat.
Stop pretending the Nazi are coming to kill you. Stop being played by one side or the other. Start demanding your rights, speak out, and organize with like minded people.
The conservatives have no actual momentum save a bunch of assholes who are ready to trample your rights. They will only get away with what we let them. The solution is to get active not buy guns and hide in your basement.
The power of positive thinking. Jesus Christ.
Are you gonna type your way through the next four years, nagging at people that will get thrown in camps to find a better solution?
Ah yes, because reducing gun deaths leads to interment camps. I could only imagine what you would of said about seatbelts back in the day.
Why do you keep intentionally misspelling “more” as “moar”?
It is just sarcasm flair.
When you’re preparing to fight a fascist regime, more guns is the solution.
Been working out so well with around 50k Americans dying every year needlessly. We are also clocking in at around one thousand child deaths every year. Japan had zero child deaths from guns this year, and the last, and the last, ad nauseam.
I know you gun nutters love your defense fantasies, but arming the gays isn’t going to solve any problems and will result in more dead people
We already have more guns than people. How many moar guns until we are finally safe!?
Pretty cool suggesting at risk groups should stay vulnerable when their enemies are armed.
Interesting position you’re taking.
General gun violence is unlike targeted political violence against minorities, so things like school shooting and gang violence stats mean nothing.
Comparing to Japan is irrelevant as there isn’t an armed and empowered group publicly discussing hunting at risk folks there.
Pretending you care about human life when a hundred people die everyday from preventable gun violence is an interesting position you have taken.
Imagined political gun violence in your head or actual dead people. Clearly your imagination must take priority.
Oh it is not just Japan of course. But you knew that.
I never said the general preservation of human life was what I was discussing. Of course I’d prefer no one die at all.
I’d also prefer immigrants, lgbt+, and others wouldn’t be hunted for who they are.
I clearly highlighted that an at risk group is trying to empower themselves due to the impending risk from actual threats made publicly against them.
Who am I (or you) to tell those folks they are in the wrong to reach for whatever tools they can access? (Be it speech, political action, or indeed self defence)
IM not worried (or therefore the actor in your suggested paranoid imaginings), because I’m not a member of a target group. The trick is I can empathize with their position, and I can recognize that although I’m not in a target group now, I sure could be in the future.
For those reasons I would never get in the way of folks defending themselves, especially when this group is interested in training and safe practices.
The people who “take priority” are those in harm’s way, and we aren’t the ones to tell them how to live right now, there hearing MORE them enough of that as it is
So you are a gun apologist who doesn’t seem to care fifty thousand Americans needlessly die every year. If you do care I guess thoughts and prayers is all you got. Meanwhile no other civilized country has this problem.
Kids get bulletproof backpacks so they won’t get shot in the back. Clearly, by your reasoning we should also be arming these kids.
All this so far is just about gun death as well. Not about the millions of partners who are threatened into staying by gun point. Not about all the people who have lost their loved ones to guns. Not all the maiming and injuries.
I am sure millions of people who live in fear of guns is worth those defense fantasies though. After all, once they are all armed there will be nothing to fear ever again.
I’ve made my point, you haven’t addressed it.
You think you get to decide that THIS group doesn’t get to join the rest. The rest are already armed, and of course that’s a good discussion to have (reducing general gun violence.) But no, here’s where you want to argue.
🙄
But we’re not talking specifically about protecting children here, I’d agree with you that less guns are better to those ends. For fighting fascism though? It took a lot of gun deaths to unseat Hitler and Mussolini
Sure in a hypothetical alternate reality where the only way to defeat evil is to shoot it. Unfortunately we live in the real world and it just means more dead people.
Maybe I’m feeling cornered, vulnerable, angry, as is often the case with these things. But how do you suggest we protect ourselves and our allies from an evil that strengthens itself off of your sickness, your hunger, your homelessness, and has absolutely no qualms about meeting you with violence and coming up with an excuse later?
I would not suggest purchasing a gun if you are feeling cornered, vulnerable, and angry. Fear is the mind killer.
I would suggest reaching out to others, talking, getting political, and organizing.
Bringing a good argument to a gunfight is unfortunately not a winning strategy. When the fascists have no qualms shooting you simply for being yourself, no amount of peaceful organizing is going to stop them. Peaceful protests and organizing only work because they have the implicit threat of violence if the demands are not met.
I also wouldn’t advise a gun. Explosives are way more effective.
When diplomacy fails, you’re left with two choices:
Violence or giving up.
Diplomacy is proving to be ineffective. That leaves only the two above options.
In this case evil is coming to shoot you.
Trumpers killed exactly zero gays today. Meanwhile over one hundred Americans died of gun violence including a couple of children.
This is the difference between your fantasy and my reality.
You expected it to happen immediately?
The “reality” where fascism backs down when you ask it nice?
Unironically yes, because more violence is incoming.
Since they belive in enacting laws that benefit them only, we have to twist these same laws against them.
Don’t want more guns (or any guns tbh), but fuck it, I’m buying a gun and going to the shooting range with my fuck trump rainbow tshirt
Better to keep a low profile in places you’re outnumbered.
Feels relevant. Idk shit about guns.
There’s not a situation that an american can’t shoot or explode him/herself out of.
If the situation is “fascist coming for you with a weapon” I’m okay with the answer being guns.
Investigating the Link Between Gun Possession and Gun Assault.
Objectives. We investigated the possible relationship between being shot in an assault and possession of a gun at the time. Methods. We enrolled 677 case participants that had been shot in an assault and 684 population-based control participants within Philadelphia, PA, from 2003 to 2006. We adjusted odds ratios for confounding variables.
Results. After adjustment, individuals in possession of a gun were 4.46 (P < .05) times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not in possession. Among gun assaults where the victim had at least some chance to resist, this adjusted odds ratio increased to 5.45 (P < .05).
Conclusions. On average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. Although successful defensive gun uses occur each year, the probability of success may be low for civilian gun users in urban areas. Such users should reconsider their possession of guns or, at least, understand that regular possession necessitates careful safety countermeasures.
All 5 of them. “We just don’t want to be put in concentration camps.” Just a little bit of hyperbole.
They weren’t thrown into concentration camps in 2016-20, and it is very likely if not guaranteed that they won’t be put into concentration camps now. If anyone tries to put them into concentration camps, I support them being armed & defending their rights to freedom.
There is a lot of ignorance about firearms, and by people who admit in the article they have not owned or operated firearms. If they are of sound mind & judgment & educate themselves on firearm safety, I see no problem with this movement. Knowledge dispels fear. An armed, educated populace isn’t enslaved. I want everyone who is good to also be strong, smart, armed, and free.
People absolutely were thrown into concentration camps during his last term, and they tried to do it more.
Source for this?
Children in camps.
…concentration…camps? Poison gas showers, slave labor, cremation ovens? Concentration camps, designed to slaughter people en masse?
I agree, they were overcrowded because there were so many illegal immigrants. There were a few deaths, and even abuses, I read some of them. I’m not cheering for things like that.
But to label detention camps as concentration camps like Nazi Germany, that’s not even close to true. If we’re calling those concentration camps, I must say, they are the worst concentration camps in the history of the world. Or does that, ironically, make them the best? The concentration camps with the least deaths.
I don’t recall us going into Mexico & other countries, rounding up foreign citizens, and bringing them to the United States specifically to be killed in concentration camps as an ethnic cleansing.
they don’t have to be industrialized murder facilities to be concentration camps.
And it’s just one step away. We’ve got oligarchs doing Nazi salutes at the coronation of a new god-king. It’s hardly inconceivable.
It is clear we don’t agree politically, but I’ve seen the unaltered clips of that salute & it’s…idk it’s kinda fucked up & difficult to explain away. Terrible optics.
I suggest you look up what most concentration camps were like. Auschwitz was an exception even by the standards of concentration camps and is nowadays usually called “extermination camp” for that reason.
That doesn’t mean that the other camps weren’t horrible, they were, but they were also awfully comparable to a lot of things that happen in the US prison system.
They are building camps in Texas. Concentration camps are going to be a thing soon.
It’s a matter of who is put in there first, probably migrants, but any mass immigration sweep WILL sweep up citizens. It’s happened in the past before.
