Speaking as a former rural Republican gun-owner, I’m personally under the impression that if we get to the point where I need to use firearms to defend myself from right-wing extremists, well, we already lost the fight long before that point. I’d rather we all put our brains instead of bullets together and figure out how to defuse this situation before it spirals even further out of control.
There has been an active, concerted effort documented by ProPublica initially if I recall to foment a race war and muddy the waters of discourse. Interestingly, the right wants the left armed, because they’re (a) hoping for more leftist attacks, and (b) it will justify their own recruitment and escalation of force. Meanwhile gun lobbyists realize there’s an untapped market of people to sell to, so there has been a concerted astroturfing effort among leftist circles to promote firearm adoption, conveniently.
Besides, statistically, a firearm doesn’t make one safer. It actually adds a significant amount of risk in a variety of other aspects. If one is concerned about acute or long-term safety of themselves or their family, I think there are better ways to occupy time, money, and risk.
I didn’t mean to suggest you specifically did—just that this was the intention of far-right operatives;. I knew you were referring to defense, but I also made a point to disagree in that respect as well.
Speaking as a former rural Republican gun-owner, I’m personally under the impression that if we get to the point where I need to use firearms to defend myself from right-wing extremists, well, we already lost the fight long before that point. I’d rather we all put our brains instead of bullets together and figure out how to defuse this situation before it spirals even further out of control.
There has been an active, concerted effort documented by ProPublica initially if I recall to foment a race war and muddy the waters of discourse. Interestingly, the right wants the left armed, because they’re (a) hoping for more leftist attacks, and (b) it will justify their own recruitment and escalation of force. Meanwhile gun lobbyists realize there’s an untapped market of people to sell to, so there has been a concerted astroturfing effort among leftist circles to promote firearm adoption, conveniently.
Besides, statistically, a firearm doesn’t make one safer. It actually adds a significant amount of risk in a variety of other aspects. If one is concerned about acute or long-term safety of themselves or their family, I think there are better ways to occupy time, money, and risk.
I didn’t argue for that or suggest violence as a motivator to be involved.
I didn’t mean to suggest you specifically did—just that this was the intention of far-right operatives;. I knew you were referring to defense, but I also made a point to disagree in that respect as well.