I'm the oldest daughter of two Lt Colonels, and the product of a three-generational military family on both sides, and I think y'all need to listen to the next bit:
We ended the draft because the military's analysis of the Vietnam War revealed that 90% of all draftees would not shoot to kill, even when it was life or death. They'd shoot high or low, but they *couldn't* shoot to kill. As such, they actively degraded the war effort.
So you need to think twice before arming yourselves.
(1/?)
There's a lot of *wildly* irresponsible rhetoric floating around right now about how all queer folk should arm themselves to resist what's coming. And, deadass?
If you're armed, and you're not 10000% sure that you can shoot to kill, the only thing you're gonna do is get yourself and everyone around you dead.
Period.
A weapon is a *massive* escalation. Meanwhile, the tool that really gets you out of deadly trouble in a fascist dictatorship?
A silver tongue and steely guts.
(2/?)
Resistance is about far, far more than the image we have in our heads of the brave French resistance fighter in WWII. It's making the gears of their fascist machine grind. Drop a little sugar in the right gas tank. Lose important paperwork and records. Follow all the rules, *exactly,* in excruciating detail, explaining to the fascists that their superiors will come down on you if you don't.
(3/?)
Fascism is a machine. All machines have moving parts. You don't attack the reinforced bits. And fascism, specifically, is a machine built to kill. When you take up the same arms, you're attacking them where they're strongest.
So, when you plan your resistance, unless you're a very rare sort--probably with preexisting military experience--don't plan for a violence that you can't and won't win.
(4/?)
Governments are nowhere near as omniscient as you think, and have nowhere near enough resporces to follow up on what data they do have.
Wanna resist? One of the very best things you can do is look suspicious as fuck while doing *absolutely nothing* illegal.
Consume their resources. Frustrate the machine. *That* is how you save lives. Not weapons. Not for the overwhelming majority of you.
Leave that trouble for those truly prepared for it.
(5/5).
@Impossible_PhD Also also? Not to put too fine a point on it, but arming one's self is a responsibility - to do so safely involves building and maintaining perishable skills. And the best time to have started that is not "now" it's "some years ago".
Weapons aren't magic talismans; they're tools with a specific purpose and like any other tool they're not that useful for someone who doesn't know what they're doing.
@daviddlevine it's extremely useful; it establishes a reality check on what investment is necessary to be competent to with a tool in order to accomplish some goal.
If someone isn't capable of coming to terms with that idea, I'd prefer they not do the thing.
@MxVerda
The advice I'm giving to my family and friends who are trying to protect themselves is to learn to keep awareness of your surroundings, pepper spray (there's practice canisters with water) and if practical, cardio.
That will get one out of a lot of bad situations and there's not many where also having a pistol would be much better.
Ever bullet you fire you're responsible for. Doc pointed out the perspective of the barrier to try to kill people... which, absolutely.
@MxVerda
But there's also the question of, in a situation where you're panicking, where will possible bullets that miss _go_? And are you confident enough in yourself that you can try to fire in time without delay and also be sure that you won't have bullets going... say, down a street. Or into a car. Into a house?
Pepper spray, at worse, someone is having an unpleasant day but will live. But avoiding things in the first place is safer still.
Doc Impossible
Lizzie Danger
David D. Levine
Mx Verda