hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Thu Apr 20, 2023 3:28 pm the young man who shot those unarmed cheerleaders must be off his meds. i don't even need to read past the headlines.

I think this kind of "on his meds" stuff is unproductive. Plenty of people I know are on meds and are at no risk of committing murder. "People are crazy" has become a really facile way to head off a lot of important conversations about the staggering number of guns in the U.S. and the general culture around them.

You know someone cares about facts and objectivity when they say "I don't even need to read past the headlines"

losthighway wrote: Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:31 pm

hbiden@onlyfans.com wrote: Thu Apr 20, 2023 3:28 pm the young man who shot those unarmed cheerleaders must be off his meds. i don't even need to read past the headlines.

I think this kind of "on his meds" stuff is unproductive. Plenty of people I know are on meds and are at no risk of committing murder. "People are crazy" has become a really facile way to head off a lot of important conversations about the staggering number of guns in the U.S. and the general culture around them.

3 cute girls get in your car and you shoot them? that's not healthy. i'm sorry.
i think this boy is severely autistic. take his gun away, sure.
his mental condition will come out at trial. it's relevant.

There's no logical defense for the number of civilian assault rifles in this country, and the ease with which people get them. 99.9% of these mass shooting are perpetrated with an AR-15 variant. The fact that it's become a symbol of freedom is telling about American culture. Banning them would have zero effect on hunting, self-defense, or target shooting. It's strictly a fetish item.

Guns are still CRAP.

Wish I could vote again.

doctor kraka wrote: Thu Apr 20, 2023 7:03 pm i think this boy is severely autistic. take his gun away, sure.

OK, I'll feed the troll again.

First off, if unprofessional diagnoses of autism are going to be thrown around, I don't think too many habitues this forum will emerge untouched.

Second, have you considered how in the countries where you can't have a gun, or you can't have a gun that holds more than a bullet or two, you get a mentally ill person doing a stabbing once every few years instead of a shooting every two weeks?

As someone said earlier in this thread: The culture of responsibility around firearms is dead.

A lot of christian nationalists don't know they're fascists, per se (Just "God-fearing Americans with Traditional Values") but they know they're gonna need a shootin' iron when it's Turner Diaries time, and you're fucking crazy if you think you're gonna be able to take their guns.

Guns will always be ubiquitous in America as long as Fox News and the NRA have Harry and Louise are convinced that The Blacks are coming for them.

I own so many firearms. So many. I didn't buy a single one of them. They were all inherited and/or free(ish). That's the thing about guns- they're virtually indestructible. Two grandfathers were WW2 veterans, my father and his brother were also combat veterans. EVERYONE hunted something- birds, rabbits, deer. As people passed away or moved into smaller houses or managed care or whatever, "Give your old Winchester to Ringo, he still goes to the range."

ALSO, I quit using cocaine before most of my friends. So, occasionally someone would say "Hey, lemme hold $100," and I'd say "Sure, you fucking blow monkey. Let me hold that shotgun until you pay me back." Most of those guys are dead or long gone out of my life. Now I have all the shotguns.

So now I have this metal box in my closet that I can barely close the door on. Buncha shotguns, M1903, Mini-14, model 97, couple of pistols, stuff I've forgotten about. I'm Southern, so I grew up shooting and really enjoy it. I'm also a Bernie Bro, so I'm not your average 2A/Bud Light hatin' homophobe gun owner.

Why do I keep them? Well, the grandfather guns are special. They kept the family fed during the Great Depression and they were a respected part of the family's handful of tools. Also, I'm handy with a shotgun- I shot competition clays for a while. It's like golf, but loud.

Why do I keep the 1000 yard+ rifles? If you've never rung a plate at 1000 yard with iron sights, you've missed out on one of life's great pleasures. (Those M1903s are CRAZY like this. Just like driving nails.) There's also the odd opportunity to put some venison in the freezer. I'm a big fan of "free" meat.

The pistols aren't worth much to sell and there was a time when an ex-gf's husband got some ideas in his head (amphetamine psychosis) that she and I were still carrying on, which is definitely not true, but he was telling people he was "coming for [me]." I walked around heavy for a minute. I worked nights at a recording studio. There were a lot of long walks to the car at 1am. No sense in being easy meat for a crackhead.

So, it's complicated. Would I give them all up if I knew it meant that not one more kid would get shot in school? Fuck yes I would. Do I think that every American Nazi would give their firearms up? I do not.

I think American gun culture in 2023 is insane. People putting photos of their shit on social media? Insane. Open carry? Insane. Bringing firearms to political demonstrations? Asking for murder. Insane. I was raised to keep everything locked up, ammo and guns in different locking cabinets. Concealed carry ONLY if you have a reason to think there's gonna be trouble, and then only if it's your only choice.

The Rules, as my grandfather and father taught me:

**Keep it completely secret.**

Never load it unless you're about to shoot.

Never let someone hand you a firearm without checking to see if it's loaded. Ever. Every gun is loaded. 90% (made-up statistic) of accidental shootings are with an "unloaded" gun.

Never point a firearm at anything you don't want to destroy.

Muzzle towards the sky or the ground at all times.

Never pull the trigger unless you can see everything behind your target.

NEVER HANDLE FIREARMS IF YOU'VE BEEN DRINKING, FFS.

But none of that matters to the... Gun Guys. Whatever you call them.

The American Right has become convinced that a capacity for cruelty and violence is a mark of masculinity. This is nazi stuff. "If they can get you to believe absurdities..." written in blood.

So, stop wishing they'd all give up their guns and figure out how you're going to cope with it. They're not going away.

About that...

Nothing ever changes, until it does. It won't be like this forever.

i'm not a gun guy but if i were i'd follow what ringo wrote about. because he learned it from his family. i've never shot an animal bigger than a marmot. i was trained in the military if i ever need it.