The queer people who are buying guns to prepare for Trump’s America

https://lemmy.world/post/42200523

The queer people who are buying guns to prepare for Trump’s America - Lemmy.World

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24498383 [https://lemmy.world/post/24498383]

At some point it just becomes “try to only point your security blanket at yourself, I guess” levels of helplessness.

But to anyone considering buying a gun:

Owing a firearm makes you (as of 2020) 8-35x more likely to kill yourself with it med.stanford.edu/…/handgun-ownership-associated-w…. And considering this is a purchase during a… let’s just say “immensely stressful” period… yeah.

But also… what purpose does it serve? A single ice nazi comes knocking on your door, you spot them through the peephole, and have time to grab your gun, load it, and fire through the door? Then… you flee Everything in the hopes that the cops don’t decide to label you a “cop killer” on top of that?

This is why gun nuts make their entire lives built around “systems” to always carry a gun and be able to quick draw. Because the reality is… whoever shoots somewhat accurately first probably “wins”. Which leads to “Well… maybe that phone in their pocket they weren’t even reaching for is a gun. I am legally justified”

But that also basically works for only the first few people to try it. Everyone else gets a squad of ice nazis either kicking down the door and flashbanging them (and themselves) or just unloading on the house from the curb.

I realize the world is scary. I am scared shitless more often than not. But think through what buying a gun can even accomplish versus all the risks.

And maybe consider reaching out to your local community organizers to figure out what CAN be accomplished.

Handgun ownership associated with much higher suicide risk

Men who own handguns are eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don't own handguns, and women who own handguns are 35 times more likely than women who don't.

News Center
Ok so what’s your advice? If you’re just here to convince ppl not to arm themselves you’ve gotta have a better option?

And maybe consider reaching out to your local community organizers to figure out what CAN be accomplished.

That is my advice and it always is that.

Individuals cannot do anything no matter how high your killstream was in Call of Duty last week.

Communities… can’t do as much as we would like but it is about strength in numbers and protecting your fellow human being. And community organizers ARE the people working on this.

But people get pissy when you tell them that they aren’t going to solve everything by buying a PSA rifle and maybe going to the shooting range a few times a year.

As for what that kind of resistance is? Maybe don’t talk about that on public facing social media?

911 is a joke and there’s a non-zero chance they’ll kill you if you get the wrong officer and you don’t satisfy their favored supremacist purity criteria. I’d rather be armed and not outsource my safety to someone I cannot trust. I also trust myself to resolve situations in my home with better judgement than a person who more than likely joined the police to live out their violent power fantasies.

I’m having a hard time taking you seriously when you’re discouraging organizing. 2A oriented groups are legitimate forms of organization and have a role to play. This isn’t about becoming an army that will fight the military, it’s about providing security when the state can no longer be trusted to do so and serving as a disincentive to right-wing paramilitary groups.

You’ve got this mixed messaging saying “the real resistance is talking” but alluding to “things beyond that” presumably organized direct action or civil disobedience. Why can’t a 2A group do both of those things?

“Individuals cannot do anything” The way you’ve framed this encourages apathy and the role we all have to play in any organized movement. Rather, we’re all individuals and we all have a duty to do something. When ‘individuals’ work together with common interest that is the very definition of ‘community’.

How long have you been hanging out with the military folk and officers you mentioned in this thread? I wonder if your harsh judgement of the means others which to assemble and express their rights is being influenced by overexposure to pig-headed thought.