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Old 02-23-2014, 05:35 AM   #24
Versus
 
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,812
Quote:
Originally Posted by AshleyO View Post
Versus, I like your idea. I especially have a very cool image of people on rascals at Walmart rolling through the lanes with their machine guns on the sides of their rascal.
You could even mount them to the handle bars of scooters and segways. Although it would be kind of akward and off-balancing with the full mount for a box of ammo. Maybe if it was canted to the side. The problem with that is left-handed shooters. Although the 240C feeds from the right, it's meant to be used as a co-ax for a stabilized turret and doesn't have a butt stock or charging handle. Hrm... We might need a different machine gun that is ambidextrous.

Quote:
What's your take on gun ownership, Versus?
It's problematic.

The first thing is that I recognize that anybody, absolutely anybody, has the capacity to flip their shit and shoot somebody. Contrary to what popular pro-gun arguments try to rationalize, this is not exclusively domain of the criminal, the mentally-ill, the poor, or anybody else. This. Is. Everybody. This is you and I. What really strikes that home for me is that, aside from a mountain of case studies on people who commit second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, I have personally seen very gentle people be triggered to shoot in rage. A lot of people shoot because it provides a measure of security. It's just something you do because your mind may rationalize that by shooting, you will stop being shot at, and that's all you really want. Some people shoot from a position of safety and have the peace of mind to intentionally miss or intentionally kill. It's a decision. And then there is what I was talking about. The people who are triggered to anger, something like when you punch a wall without really thinking about it.

What separates guns from lesser weapons is that they are so fucking easy to have available and to use. I can flip my shit while driving and hurt some people, I can do it while at home with a kitchen knife or baseball bat or a hammer or in public with a pocket knife ect. ect. The point is that my violence will be limited by the capability of my weapon, and that is the difference between a firearm and anything underneath it. Give me an assault rifle or a compact handgun and see what the fuck that I know how to do, you know?

For that I am a believer in disarmament. However, I recognize that this country is built upon the fucking American Creation Myth like it's infallible or strait from the fucking bible and I understand that disarmament will never happen here unless something changes radically. And that leads to the other problem that you began to touch on:

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But anyway, my point was that if we're going to talk about people having the ability to kill in large numbers and quickly, then that is something that I think everyone should be able to do equally and no... you can't just opt out of it by not buying a gun because it ignores those that needs that level of protection and can't afford it or are barred from having one because maybe they suffer from a condition.

The thing I don't like is people talking about this kind of stuff in the neoliberal or individualist sense. They want the capacity to kill others and they want certain other people to not have that capacity.
This is directly demonstrated by certain laws that advocate a minimum standard in production quality. http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-design-safety-standards-policy-summary/ An example is melting point laws. A gun must not melt below a certain temperature, thus it must made manufactured with more expensive materials, thus it must cost more to buy, thus it becomes unavailable to people who now cannot afford it.

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Either that or I'm just really tired of talking about gun rights to people who have very little reason to have one. It's a white problem. Yeah, I said it. Gun ownership, as a political talking point, seems to be overwhelmingly white. Maybe it's just me, but other than Versus, I've never seen or heard a PoC talk about their rights to own a gun.

Truthfully, I'm rather ambivalent about it. I lean more towards disarmament, but I can't help but feel like there are people in America that really DO need the protection a gun can offer such as women, lgbtq, and PoC.
Practically, it makes more sense in American context to give just give everybody a fighting a chance, the oppressed especially. I know a lot of people that legitimately need a gun. Threats to their safety are not a possibility, they are a fucking certainty. You look at the fucking statistics for sexual assault on bisexual women or murder of transwomen and it's fucking mind blowing why people already at the top of the status quo are the ones you see lobbying for the 2nd amendment like it was the coming of Christ. However, therein lies another problem that a lot of people don't acknowledge.

Are you ready for it?

The criminal justice system is a fucking lie.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Versus View Post
It's not about vigilantism. Someone with authority could literally say "It's open season on blacks" and it wouldn't make a god damn bit of difference because the fucking system has more than enough control over our lives to ensure that white people are already entitled to our space and dignity. We do not have permission to resist; we must allow and accept it and pray for mercy, and god fucking help anyone that resists violently.
Even if the oppressed had equal access to guns, it doesn't change the fact that they don't have the same right to use them and are more likely going to be punished for it. The point is painfully clear. "Sure, you can defend yourself from death now, but you're just going to get a life sentence for it later. What's the point? You're better off just taking it and if you're a good sport maybe that'll make it easier."







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-Breathin, Tupac.
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