fuck guns

[it's the suspense that gets me]

has the "we can't fire w/ fire" about scary-angry-dudes-who-might-want-to-kill-you argument been proved. i'm not tryin to be devils advocate...but i am being that so...i'm going to stop posting lol

look the recent shootings have got my mind going absolutely bonkers and i wanna arm myself??!! brass knuckles are legal here now i can eliminate my opponents w those

i would legitimately like to read one of these studies that accounts for like, environment and usage i guess.

about a year ago i was living with an indigenous non-binary femme presenting sex worker that received similarly credible threats from a john that felt jilted by them and stalked our home. they bought a gun in response to that. i can't say it made me feel safer but i also can't say i blame them for reacting in that way. i felt pretty similar reading both you and zorb's stories. it's very possible that it's still much more likely that that weapon would've been used on someone in our house but given that trans panic is a legitimate defense in most of the united states and the police wouldn't have cared about any of us had we died.... yeah i dunno.

i think about that, and then i compare it to the last time i thought about when i was living in a house with a gun, with my grandfather who would go on racist rants and tell me about how to use the shotgun he kept by his bed in case a black person broke into the house. i mostly thought about turning that gun on myself. it was pretty easy to see why it would be more likely to be used on us in the csae of a breakin. (this was also in the exact same area of the united states you live in iirc, i'm well aware of how terrifying that frontier justice shit can be to face in person)

i can't imagine that the latter scenario, which is about fifty million times fucking stupider isn't much, much more common than the former. i don't actually have an answer to your question but i just wanted to reemphasize that you aren't stupid and i completely get the perspective you're coming from.

[Catullus]

Here’s a quick summary of various research from Harvard:

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-threats-and-self-defense-gun-use-2/

[it's the suspense that gets me]

yeah.... i've seen that before but going back to it after typing those thoughts out so i could have them down. comparing it to how i would imagine any sympathetic situation such as the former one i wrote out playing out... i want to believe there's a blindspot in that research because it would at least give some semblance of power over aggressors. it just seems like another one of those situations where i want to believe in something in order to feel some sort of power over a situation (i think this is also the case with anyone that's mentioned an interest in owning a gun in this thread, at least as far as i can tell, i haven't read every page of it.) but the reality is just that there's no easy way to gain control over said situations.

it fuckin' sucks.

[wolfie]

Guns are a feeling.

[wolfie]

Walk around with a P226 in your waist next time you go to stop & shop and you'll understand

[manvstrees]

that feeling is "i'm weak and scared all the time" and the fact that people are cool with advertising this always freaks me out

[wolfie]

But that's not how they feel with the gun, right?

[manvstrees]

no they still feel that way

[wolfie]

I don't think they do. I think they feel powerful, and statistics be damned that's what really matters.

[wolfie]

Or maybe they do, who knows I don't know anyone who Carrie's a gun

[manvstrees]

that feeling of power doesn't put them at ease though right
i think they're still observing things at all times as if there might be trouble and also so that they can live out some fantasies
so yeah, scared little pissants (with power)

[joe]

[mcwop23]

it’s hard for me to shit on marginalized groups for feeling a need for having them

that being said i fucking hate them and even feel uneasy when i see a cop with one in their holster

[manvstrees]

it’s hard for me to shit on marginalized groups for feeling a need for having them

i admit that i'm only shitting on the people who feel marginalized vs those who actually are

[marta]

it's not just anecdotal - it's my experience

[super gas]

it’s hard for me to shit on marginalized groups for feeling a need for having them

that being said i fucking hate them and even feel uneasy when i see a cop with one in their holster

every time i get on a crowded subway train and there is a cop on it and i see his gun i start to freeaaak the fuck out.

[Jefferson Zeppelin]

[Catullus]

People believe a lot of things that seem to make sense but the research doesn't bare out at all. The problem is confirmation bias. They go looking for information to support their side. I try as much as possible to do the opposite-form my opinion from research rather than have an opinion and look for evidence to prove it. But no one is immune to it. It's hardwired into the way our brains work. So if you've grown up around the idea that guns make you safer and that having one will prevent you from being a victim of a crime, you'll think that no matter what evidence is provided. Your feelings will always override that evidence. And since we can't study the issue in depth and widespread, there will never be the body of obvious evidence needed to push for reforms. That's what was needed for cigarettes to get regulated as much as they are. Firearms have a strong enough lobby that who knows if we'll ever be able to get the reforms that we both need and that a grand majority of people clearly want.

[wolfie]

fortunately people will start to come around as more and more of them get shot

maybe more guns really is the answer

[wolfie]

i dont' really mean all these horrible things i say

but man this world

[DasLofGang]

fortunately people will start to come around as more and more of them get shot

you're giving people way too much credit

[wolfie]

fortunately people will start to come around as more and more of them get shot

you're giving people way too much credit

it just hasn't touched people enough

you can turn off the tv. you can't turn off your family disappearing

[wolfie]

just ignore me seriously

[DasLofGang]

America is great at having a hand that is just smoking charred skeleton bone and being like "hmm some say this stove is hot but I'd better keep touching it to make absolutely sure"

[iambic]

it’s hard for me to shit on marginalized groups for feeling a need for having them

that being said i fucking hate them and even feel uneasy when i see a cop with one in their holster

every time i get on a crowded subway train and there is a cop on it and i see his gun i start to freeaaak the fuck out.

yeah, and it's insane-feeling, as a craven euro immigrant, to articulate how bizarro and frightening it is to see a gun in public. or just to be in a society that, to its bones, thinks of violence as necessary, inevitable, and even ennobling (if you're the one doing it)

it's like americans just grew up in this poison gas, hacking up their lungs everywhere, act like having blood and lung chunks everywhere is unavoidable, and all the while shout about the need to add more poison gas to drive out the bad poison gas

[DasLofGang]

but one must admit, we look pretty badass holding the poison gas sideways

[chandler]

Police in Europe more often carry guns than not unless my eyes are mistaken

[iambic]

varies by country. in Ireland and the UK, they don't carry. I didn't see a gun in person until I was 9 and visited portugal on holiday

tbf, my reaction was probably "cool!"

[chandler]

I feel like that's ancient history though (not carrying by default)

[Catullus]

I feel like that's ancient history though (not carrying by default)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_firearm_use_by_country