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That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.-George Orwell
That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.-George Orwell
This is so so accurate . I am an avowed socialist, anti-racist, and fan of ANTIFA. I remember going shooting with a neighbor who is at least MAGA adjacent and his expression when he saw my arsenal of various tactical firearms, and that I really like H&K. And believe in go .308 or go home. And I'm quite capable of exploiting the longer range of the 7.62x51 over the 5.56. Anyway, he found out that we have guns and know how to use them too. I changed some minds that day.
Remember when conservatives finally took gun violence seriously when black people started arming themselves? Pepprtridge farms remembers.
This is part of the reason I have mixed feelings about gun control.
From a public health standpoint, it is incontrovertable: more guns equals more gum deaths. Restricting access to guns unquestionably reduces gun deaths.
But the modern gun control movement has its roots in racism and would but unequally enforced more against PoC and other marginalized groups.
And I don't know how to reconcile these truths.
More guns does not mean more gun deaths, it doesn't correlate. States with high rates of gun ownership don't nesisarally have high violence rates. Accident rates have been demonstrated to go way down with actual gun safety instruction (gun control groups have been trying to coopt 'gun safety' because gun control has high negative ratings in polling). Suicides don't correlate with gun ownership internationally, we have a general suicide problem. It doesn't matter if someone takes their life with a gun or overdosing with pills, we need to better help for people in crisis & to end the ableism against people who suffer from metal illness. And where violence does correlate is communities that have been marginalized for generations socially, economically, in the educational, & 'justice' system.
Gun control is really just a way for the power elites in society to avoid having to actually deal with the actual underlying causes of violence. Also the prison industrial complex needs more laws to fill prisons as support for pot legalization builds.
see also: john brown, the union army, and union coal miners fighting against the thugs of J.H. blair in harlan county, kentucky.
Are you suggesting marginalized groups defending themselves are at fault for mass shooters?
We just need to stop using guns and then the fascists will stop too, or something. Same with when the president doesn't expand the Supreme Court or officially assassinate rivals. Take the high road. /s
Turns out when everyone has a hammer, an unusual number of people will die to getting hit by hammers. Also, it turns out that if no one has a hammer, it will be really hard to build homes and bridges.