If you don’t, no need to reply telling me you don’t. I live in the woods with some critters. I live pretty far from neighbors/police so having a gun gives me peace of mind. I also hunt and consider myself a gun hobbiest. I enjoy shooting targets, cleaning/organizing, reloading and earning food with guns.
Want.
Lifelong anti-gun libtard here.
I think guns are primarily for people who fear. I think fear is the primary motivator for firearm ownership. I would like to live in a society where fear doesn’t push people to own firearms. That is not our reality. That is not the society we live in.
There are masked, unqualified paramilitary federal goons entering our communities and harassing and assaulting AMERICAN CITIZENS. I passed my history classes. I enjoy reading up on history in my own personal time. I know where things like this often lead, and I’ve come to accept that it’s time to arm myself. A significant portion of our populace also supports what is happening and would be perfectly fine with people like myself, who want everyone to have healthcare, a good education, and to be fed, being “removed” from this plane of existence. These people are everywhere. I understand that they are not actively going out and killing people like me, but they are voting to persecute and harm people like me and the people I care about.
That’s enough for me to arm myself out of fear.
I don’t believe this to be a good society. I don’t believe this to be an intelligent society. I don’t believe this to be a safe society going forward.
I haven’t purchased a firearm yet, but I’ve been out shooting with friends a number of times and I’ve been asking questions to get ready for the process of acquiring at least one.
Liberal-libertarian here- I think the married gay couple should have AR15s to defend their marijuana crop and adopted children from attack, confident in the knowledge that single payer healthcare will be there if they get hurt.
I also follow history, at least a little. And I think even a light perusal of the last 100ish years should be enough to show anyone that ‘it can’t happen here’ / ‘it won’t happen here’ are foolish attitudes, as the current situations are demonstrating.
I’m curious if you regret your past support of anti-gun policies, knowing that they are directly making it harder for you to acquire a gun for self-defense today?
And FWIW if you have any gun questions or want to know anything about specific guns, safety, culture, etc please feel free to reply or DM me.
Not really.
I’d prefer to live in a society that doesn’t perpetuate enough fear to cause people to desire firearms for self defense. Those societies do exist. And 10+ years ago things weren’t as they are now in America. The situation has degraded. We could have gone down another path that could have led to less fear and gun ownership, but that’s not the future we chose for ourselves.
So I’ve had to shift my expectations. That’s why I don’t really regret advocating against guns in the past. I still don’t like them. I still think more guns will cause more problems. But our society is becoming more ignorant and our decisions are going to lead to more people being more destitute and more desperate, which will increase crime, as political violence also increases, so the bottom line is you have to protect yourself.
I’d prefer to live in a society where no guns are ever needed.
The problem is, you can’t predict the future.
But that’s my point. 10+ years ago, you wouldn’t have predicted this. 10+ years ago, you’d have fought to restrict or remove gun rights. And now here we are, if you and those like you had succeeded, you wouldn’t be able to buy a gun.
That’s why I think gun rights (including yours) are so important, and why I hope you (someday) regret your previous anti-gun advocacy. Because however great our society is at any point in time, it can always get bad again. And the question is when that happens, do we want to have proverbially shot ourselves in the foot by removing our own means of self-defense? I say no.
Thus, if I may be a bit silly, an image for when you go into the gun store and have the right to buy that gun:
:D
I would argue that the ideal is a society where guns are readily available, but rarely needed. Might you agree with that?