Posts

@Thanotos Omega
 
@Background Pony #55F7  
Such complex arguments.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
I also think you’re misinterpreting what Cyborg_pony is saying - what he is referring to is a tweet by the NRA linking an article saying that the Justice Department is to prioritize prosecution for lying on background checks. If you go there, you will see that they have the “clapping hands” symbol, ie they support such a measure.

Giving teachers guns is a stupid idea.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
Wow, the NRA sucks so much,

@Amethyst_Crystal  
The NRA’s lobbying power does not come from money - they don’t even reach the top ten. Nor is it as a lobbyist for the nefarious “gun industry.” The big name manufacturers and retailers have often been too willing to accept restrictions in exchange for maintaining their place in the market (and sometimes eliminate smaller competitors), and several are in financial trouble from their own mismanagement and overloaded debt.
 
Do you know what the NRA brings that makes them influential? Something that ultimately matters far more in politics than money.
 
Voters.
 
Millions upon millions of voters, which runs the gamut from hunters and recreational shooters, to collectors, to hobbyists, to everyday concealed carry holders, to law enforcement officers and active and veteran military, to people who do not even own guns but might be interested in doing so one day. There may be other organizations, but the NRA is the 800 lb gorilla in the room and is viewed as the go-to organization for lobbying for firearms owners rights and interests. We may not always agree with it - hell, I certainly think their ads are absolute cringe and are doing themselves no favor - but since it is the most visible lobbying firm on behalf of firearms owners, an attack on it and seeking to destroy it is viewed as an attack on and seeking to destroy us. We may not all share the same interests in particular firearms, but we realize that if we do not all hang together we will surely all hang separately.
 
And we vote, and will continue to vote.

@The Smiling Pony  
Considering Americans went to war with each other principally over the right to have slaves, I doubt anything can be done over a realistic timeframe.
 
Gun culture probably won’t change until the law does as a basis first. It’s problematic, but it’s the some progress you’ve mentioned.

@Cyborg_pony  
Let me get this straight: you think it’s wrong for the Justice Dept. to prioritze prosecuting federal background check liars? What part of lying to the feds to get a gun sounds ok to you?
 
Here’s the NRA’s incredibly evil fucked up ad that has most sane people recoiling in disgust.
 
To quote one of the comments:  
‘It is EXACTLY this type of authoritarianism and government abuse of power that the 2nd amendment sought to defend against. Any TRUE patriot should be absolutely outraged by the systematic violation of our constitutional rights, and anyone who claims to value the constitution should be out there defending these protester’s 1st amendment rights that are being blatantly violated.’

@The Smiling Pony  
I agree.  
I wasn’t sure how to phrase it,  
so I went with ‘no other country where literally fucking anyone could show up and kill them’.
 
At least in those places you can expect certain groups of people to be that dangerous.
 
Oh wait yeah, it’s kinda like that for non-whites when confronting american cops, too, isn’t it?

@Amethyst_Crystal  
Can you link one of theses “vile ads”?
 
I don’t think they’re the ones spreading hate and paranoia since they advocate for such things like “The Justice Department plans to ask United States attorneys to prioritize the prosecutions of prospective gun buyers who lie on federal background check forms”
 
I don’t know much about the NRA, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t sell guns, but probably has member that own stores.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
(no other “western” country; I’m sure people in Nicaragua, Brazil’s favelas, or Syria have far it worse…)

@The Smiling Pony  

 
That was the funniest thing I’ve seen all week, and it’s Saturday.

@The Smiling Pony  
No other country has so many of its citizens frightened and sad and stressed because someone they know or don’t know might show up and kill them with a weapon that’s designed to make killing very, very easy.
 
To clarify, no other country has this situation where it could be literally fucking anyone that would do this.  
Because no other country makes it so fucking easy to get a gun.  
This gun-worship and ‘fuck others’ lives’ shit has to stop,  
or america will continue to be a hellhole that pretends to be first world.
 
@Violet Rose in The Rain  
Changing the vicious dangerous attitude of police in america  
would help with disrupting the hateful hyper-individualistic ‘ill kill anyone that disagrees’ evil in that hellhole too.

@Cyborg_pony  
Black markets are where you buy and sell previously legal guns. Cartels use weapons bought from the US, or just outright given to them by the US as part of the super-successful War on Drugs. These are things that are not insurmountable problems that preclude even attempting to properly regulate guns.
 
Americans are already punished en-mass over the actions of a few with things like speed limits, useless airport safety checks, anti-drug laws, etc. I think it’d be best if americans could go to sleep with some grumpy about not being able to own an SKS than not being able to sleep at all because they’re expecting an armed home invader to come murder their family, grieving the loss of a family member killed by an armed assailant, or just plain dead.

Reforming the police force in America and telling them to clamp down on illegal gun sales would be beneficial in lowering illegal gun sales and incidents of cops abusing their power, essentially making this a two-fold solution.
 
And yet, I don’t see anyone else suggesting this.
 
There are laws preventing people from stealing or murdering, yet it doesn’t stop robbers or murderers from doing what they do and breaking the law. Why should we hold black market sellers to a different standard?

@zerowinger66  
First off, that billboard is talking about ‘kill’ as in ‘get rid of its power’. It’s an organization to destroy, not individuals to literally kill. Just in case that was somehow not clear.
 
Second off, the NRA has transformed into a vile cesspool of hate and paranoia. All those sick fucks want now is to sell guns, no matter the cost in life. Have you seen their fucked up ads encouraging violence now?
 
They are a propganda machine shoving $$$ into politicians pockets to fuck over the gun laws that are already on the books, some of the ones you and I both agree with.
 
There are better gun associations to associate with.  
I for one am very happy that there is so much public outrage against those sickos this week.

@The Smiling Pony  
It’s called the black market. Arms smugglers. The cartel.
 
And I’m not saying there can’t be things done, but an outright ban wont solve it. There are procedures and ways to keep guns out of the hands of people, but that requires individuals to do their part of the job.
 
Honestly, it more un-American to punish thousands of law abiding citizens over the actions of one going on a rampage. Rights shouldn’t be so frivolous. People should go to sleep with the right to own something with it to be taken away the next, because outliers.

@HJSDGCE, God’s Wrath  

 
… no, it’s not.

@Background Human  
That’s why I respect those who do wield one. It’s a responsibility that they are willing to carry.
 
It’s not a toy. It’s a weapon. It’s a tool which bears a heavy weight of responsibility, and bears also a heavy consequence, should you misuse it. And people who do take this responsibility should know what they have in their hands.
 
A doctor has the life of his patient in his hands. It’s a heavy responsibility to carry, and one mistake could ruin everything. He could leave easily and no one would stop him. But he stays anyways.
 
That is what it’s like to own a firearm.

@zerowinger66  
self defense from what though?  
A invading foreign army? A zombie horde?
 
I get self defense with pistols and hand guns, but semi automatic rifles are just not tools for self defense. They’re weapons meant to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. They are murder weapons. Nothing else. As seen in countless mass shootings over the last decades.
 
And for self defense I imagine they’re useless too. If any attacker comes to your home he will have the element of surprise on his side almost all the time. By the time you realize what happens, get to wherever you hide your AR15 etc, get it ready and can start fighting he already shot you in the back multiple times.  
My common sense tells me a loaded pistol or something like that hidden in your night desk is way more ueseful in that case.  
And even then I would feel safer if the attacker just wouldn’t be able to have a fucking firearm.
 
But hey, I’m just a European. I just don’t get it. Right? Right…

@Cyborg_pony  
“Gun culture”. Maybe you want to try changing that. Say, with laws and stuff. It worked for other countries, after all.
 
As for illegal firearms, most of those were legal to begin with… It’s not like the 31st Street Ballers have a gun factory, they just buy guns that used to be legal until the legal owner decided to sell them, had it stolen, or decided to do some crimes with them. Effective gun policies and policing work.
 
It’s a very defeatist and utterly unamerican attitude to just give up and say nothing can be done about it. I mean, the US once had a very pro-slavery and anti-black “culture”, and there’s been at least some success in changing that, in spite of many.

@HJSDGCE, God’s Wrath  
Anyone who isn’t reluctant to wield an instrument of death has no business wielding it. If you use your gun for hunting or target shooting, fine, but when you assume the power to end a human life you assume an awesome responsibility. It should be unnerving.

@Cyborg_pony  
It’s an amendment; it explicitly means it’s a change, and it wouldn’t be the first amendment that’s been voided.
 
It’s hard to say that banning certain kinds of firearms would stop murders, but there is something to say about the lack of murders in western countries where guns are mostly banned as opposed to the US.
 
Also, it’s far more likely that the reason these students are talking against guns is because they just witnessed friends and kids they knew get murdered by one, rather than some insidious democrat teachers Even if the madman had retained his intent to murder without the ease of a semi-automatic rifle, it’s highly likely he’d have been less successful with, say, a hatchet.

@Amethyst_Crystal  

 
Who are you to decide if Ainz is the crazy one?
 
The few people I don’t trust with firearms are those who are either reluctant to wield one, or those who want to ban them. Because I know, these people can’t handle the responsibility of owning a weapon and they’re the ones that would likely kill someone out of stress.

@The Smiling Pony  
Except you’re omitting the culture of the U.S. and trying to equate it to other countries with less extensive gun culture.
 
Like I mentioned prior. How do you plan to deal with the illegal firearms?
 
 
@Amethyst_Crystal  
You think a ban will solve a problem, but in reality, it can make things much worse. people can’t legally own them sounds good on paper to you, because it makes you think they’re just disappear. Only on the surface. The black market exists and will always exists.
 
And the fact you don’t know much about AR-15’s as well as other firearms makes me think of the “refer madness” movies.
 
I’m not the one delusional here, for think a placebo will be the cure.
 
And I know this won’t help, don’t own any guns. I debut I could pass getting a license for one.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
I’m sorry, but for many including myself, that is simply not negotiable. We are legal owners, we have committed no crime, we are in the process of committing no crime. We are citizens exercising our fundamental, constitutional and universal human right to self defense in securing ourselves, our kin, and our property in a manner we see fit and is permitted by law.
 
For all the rage against the AR-15 and other modern semi-auto rifles like it, fundamentally there is nothing particularly about civilian AR-15s and other rifles that have not been available to general US public for decades. And ultimately that is why we defend it - not because it is special, but because it is not special. And therefore, attempts to restrict or ban it will ultimately, whether promoters of a ban intend or not, wind up being a legal precedent for restricting or banning other and perhaps, all firearms.
 
And when we see things like this:  
 
It merely reinforces our belief in the necessity of maintaining ownership of said firearms.
 
Believe it or not, we are quite open to compromise.
 
I mentioned in an earlier post about measures to seize arms and prevent purchases from persons under restraining orders or who law enforcement have active concern for - again with the caveat that individuals have strong due process protectionss that allow them to appeal their status.
 
Banning bumpfire-stocks? Sure, or at the very least regulating them as NFA items - they’re of little use besides turning dollar bills into noise and despite some of the louder protests on some corners of the gunsphere, I really don’t think they’re that popular, otherwise my local shop wouldn’t have been putting them on clearance over a year ago.
 
Restrictions on binary triggers? Certainly, in my opinion they serve as little more than a dead man’s switch and are a negligent discharge waiting to happen.
 
Universal background checks, including for private person to person sales? We may have to travel a bit more and pay a fee at an FFL for them to conduct the NICS check, but I don’t see it as a serious infringement, and similar systems are already in place in many states.
 
But I am sorry, further bans and confiscations are not a position that millions of legal owners such as myself willing to accept.