It is disgusting that Democrats in Congress would wear AR-15 pins following an attempt on Donald Trump's life with an AR-15.

Oops, no, I got that wrong. These are the AR-15 pins worn by GOP members of Congress after schoolchildren were gunned down in yet another school shooting using an AR-15.

@augieray Wait, seriously somebody did this in your country and there wasn't any response from general public?
@schmaker There was a response to this from Democrats, but it only amused and emboldened the Republicans. https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-members-ar-15-lapel-pins-2023-2
Why Congress members have been wearing lapel pins resembling AR-15

Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, who owns a gun store, has taken responsibility for handing out lapel pins in the shape of miniature AR-15 rifles.

Insider
@augieray I would expect general public to raise up their voices, not only politicians. It's their kids who gets murdered by the thing they are wearing on the clothes...
@schmaker Plenty did. The GOP doesn't care. They are the "cry harder" party, now.
@augieray
That is outrageous. It is unbelievable that people would even vote for those guys... then again, there is a significant number of idiots voting for fascists here in Germany, so who am I to talk. I will keep my fingers crossed for your elections!
@schmaker
@augieray what the literal fuck

@augieray

It is what you call karma…

Why haven't more people been talking about gun regulation policies after the Trump incident?
@augieray @pluralistic #Alt4You image description (you may be able to update your post to make it more accessible): gun pins on various lapels and a tie
@augieray I actually quite like the idea of politicians wearing badges to tell you who has bought them. They should do the same for the petroleum, tobacco and Israel lobbies.
@augieray you don’t seem to under the concept they preach. You see, if the guy who told BBC that he saw the gunman and alerted the authorities only had a weapon, HE could have taken the shooter out before he shot at Trump…”we need more good guys with guns” was their argument after several previous shooting.
@augieray The Republican party is not about susbstance; they're all about symbols. The party is full of used car salesman who have a long list of suckers who buy their crap. And they NEVER take the blame because they have convinced their dumb ass base that it's all the Democrat's fault. And their base falls for it because at least they get a crappy maga hat in appreciation for their business.
@augieray The GOP cult of death, treason, fascism, and repression.
@augieray It would be like wearing a pin of a cross.
@augieray Can someone explain to me what AR-15 are good for, what are their purpose? I am a hunter, I spent lots of time getting the permits (in Sweden you need to show that you have the skills and the know-how before you can buy a gun, unless you're a criminal or insane), so I am not oblivious to why one might want a gun. I don't expect hunters to toss the bullets at the deer. I just don't see why anyone would want that particular weapon, if it's not to shoot humans. And that's not legal?
@nemorosa In some people's heads, it's about protecting themselves from a tyrannical government. In other's, protecting their home and family (and since the bad guys have assault rifles...) So, it is about shooting people.
@augieray Wow, that's, to me, is so foreign! I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it.
@nemorosa Even in the US, many of us feel the same.
@augieray I can't understand how more guns would solve any problems with guns. That, to me, sounds like something someone who wants to sell more guns would say.

@nemorosa @augieray

> just don't see why anyone would want that particular weapon, if it's not to shoot humans. And that's not legal?

Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people and was acquitted. Shooting people is absolutely legal if you're white and the people you are shooting are black/brown/gay/trans/left-leaning/uppity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Rittenhouse

Kyle Rittenhouse - Wikipedia

@nemorosa @augieray Also, while assault rifles get all the press, the vast majority of firearm violence in the US is done with pistols, which are also only good for shooting people. (I can't lay my hands on the data set right now, but more people are murdered with "bare hands" in this country than with rifles, even with all the highly-publicized mass shootings.)
@d2718 @nemorosa First of all, I think all three men Rittenhouse shot were white. Second, the fact people focus on assault rifles has nothing to do with many they kill in a year but how many they kill in a minute and how they are the weapon of choice in mass shootings.
@augieray @d2718 It takes a long time to kill dozens or more children at a school by hand than with an assault weapon, though. Even I have heard of Columbine, Bath and Virginia Tech.

@nemorosa @augieray I am absolutely _not_ defending assault rifles or advocating for private assault rifle ownership.

I'm just pointing out

a) that, while the overwhelming majority of oxygen expended in the "culture conflict" about firearm ownership is about automatic rifles, if we really want to save lives, handguns should go _too_

b) that the (very reasonable) "they're only for killing people" argument applies equally to handguns, so let's fucking ban them, too.

@d2718 @augieray I'm all for banning stuff that has only one purpose; to harm others.

I am truly worried that the US will tear itself apart. From this side of the Atlantic it sounds like the country is just about ready to rip itself apart. The rhetoric is violent, the speeches spiteful, the headlines fearful. The repercussions will be enormous, imagine what Putin would do if he didn't have to worry about the US?

From here, it looks terrifying...

@nemorosa @d2718 There are crazies on both sides (more on one than the other), and people do histrionically speak of civil war, but most people are nowhere near feeling polarized enough to tear the nation apart. That doesn't mean we won't see some instances and regions with some organized violence, but I still believe most Americans are saner than the headlines suggest.
@augieray @d2718 I hope you're correct, I really do because the alternative scares me.

@nemorosa @augieray I am not so much worried about (unlikely) "civil war" violence so much as (much more likely) state-sanctioned oppressive violence if a combination of the rabid right-wing "culture war" propaganda machine and hand-wringing "both-sides"ing "centrists"* deliver the presidency to Trump and Project 2025.

*My opinion is that these are largely racists or greedy affluent people who are attempting to hide their revolting complicity under some sort of veneer of "reasonableness".

@augieray @nemorosa

> There are crazies on both sides (more on one than the other)

Yeah, but the crazies on the left mostly want to guillotine the few billionaires who are suffocating the country (and destroying the environment) for the sake of...amassing an even higher "Capitalism Score", I guess.

The crazies on the right want to shoot queers, browns, muslims, teachers, anyone who suggests they might alter their behavior for the public good, and friends of/advocates for said groups.

@d2718 Interesting POV, would the left not defend themselves if being attacked? Maybe not, that depends on many things, I guess. From over here, where I can only draw conclusions from the headlines (and you know how correct and sober they are, most of the time) it looks like one side is spoiling for a fight. It doesn't take two to start an aggression.
I hope the headlines are just fearmongering.
@augieray

@nemorosa @augieray

If the left stays (sufficiently) in power, our "justice system" should still function effectively enough to blunt any large-scale organized "insurgency". If they don't, the state will end up doing the right's dirty work, and the crazies won't need to "civil war". I'm sure there will still be plenty of sanctioned extrajudicial violence though. It'll be fucking terrible.

@d2718 @augieray That's just awful! I wish I could say that you could hide here until it blows over, but we've got our out right-wing fascists trying to dismantle our democracy. The only difference is that they've not yet reached the stage where they use force against people. Just FUD so far. The only country, I know of, that has shown the fascists the door is England. I might have to go there.
@nemorosa @augieray I'm sure it's less stupid there than here. πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ

@d2718 @augieray I'm not going to argue, but I know Sweden usually copies what the US does, only a few years later. Like a wanna-be 51:nd state or something πŸ˜›
If a country could stalk another country, we'd be your stalkers πŸ™‚

Edit: But a really dumb one, as we keep stealing all your worst ideas, for some reason.

@augieray @nemorosa They were, but they were uppity commie scum protesting against the cops' god-given right to shoot black people with impunity, which is why it was acceptable (laudable, even!) in the eyes of the right-wing death cult for Rittenhouse to shoot them.
@augieray Wonder how many #GOP attendees in Milwaukee have left their AF-15 pins at home? πŸ€”