Ask Lemmy

I have a deep and abiding fear of paper targets.

Sorry, I find humor helps me deal with bad situations. And as a progressive in the US, that is where I currently find myself. Large numbers of people profess that they would be happy to murder me, my family, and my friends, because we aren't misogynist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic sociopaths. I put a high value on human life, and I would not kill someone over property, but I am willing to kill to prevent others from being killed.

I believe in using as little force as necessary. I believe in de-escalation. I believe that deadly force should always be a last resort. But having a firearm leaves that option on the table, in case nothing else works.

I hope that we can eventually all get back to treating each other like human beings. Right now I don't think I can count on that from everyone.

Mostly for protection and also for emergencies. I don't hunt anymore because I can not make good use of the animal and also I don't even particularly like game meat, but it's nice to have that option if stuff goes to hell in the future. The defensive aspect I have used several times.

To me it always seemed crazy to trust other people with your protection. Not only are governments almost always run be psychopathic pedophiles who will murder millions for any number of reasons while surveiling the rest of the population, but humanity in general is not at all trustworthy. Most people are pretty evil. They will hurt innocent people. That's how humans on average are.

It's half and half. There are occasionally kidnappings and armed robberies where I live so I'm grateful to have the right to defend myself, it's good to be prepared for any unforseen disaster that might befall us, and I think firearm ownership is an important political right (it seems very suspicious that some of the people who are most eager to impose their political ideas on the rest of us are also very eager to ban one of the tools we might use to stop them). But honestly I just like guns, shooting is fun and I do it competitively, they're interesting machines to study and tinker with and they have a lot of interesting military history attached to them.

For me firearm ownership is about responsibility and independence. If you're going to eat meat, you should participate in the process and understand what it means. If you don't trust the state with a monopoly on violence, you should be a part of distributing that power as widely as possible. Guns are one of the most powerful tools in the modern world, and I value them for the same reasons I value my drill or computer: they expand my capabilities.

Need

With the political environment in the US I am increasingly feeling unsafe and feel like a gun is almost a must have now

Want.

Lifelong anti-gun libtard here.

I think guns are primarily for people who fear. I think fear is the primary motivator for firearm ownership. I would like to live in a society where fear doesn't push people to own firearms. That is not our reality. That is not the society we live in.

There are masked, unqualified paramilitary federal goons entering our communities and harassing and assaulting AMERICAN CITIZENS. I passed my history classes. I enjoy reading up on history in my own personal time. I know where things like this often lead, and I've come to accept that it's time to arm myself. A significant portion of our populace also supports what is happening and would be perfectly fine with people like myself, who want everyone to have healthcare, a good education, and to be fed, being "removed" from this plane of existence. These people are everywhere. I understand that they are not actively going out and killing people like me, but they are voting to persecute and harm people like me and the people I care about.

That's enough for me to arm myself out of fear.

I don't believe this to be a good society. I don't believe this to be an intelligent society. I don't believe this to be a safe society going forward.

I haven't purchased a firearm yet, but I've been out shooting with friends a number of times and I've been asking questions to get ready for the process of acquiring at least one.

Want, we have coyotes and I have a small dog. They usually stay away when I’m around but the last time they barely turned tail once I aggressively went to engage them after picking my dog up. He’s always on a leash but I feel more comfortable carrying a .22 with me when we go out after dark during the winter after that last encounter.

If the fasciats are going to try to kill me I will take at least one with me.

Police don't show up quickly enough to deal with a serious threat, so I have a firearm for home defense. Just one. Not into collecting, whether firearms or anything else.

My dad is into guns, so he gave me one. And I sold it. And then he gave me another, and I guess I'll hang onto this one for a bit.

I’ve been called the f word a few times since the election so I’m not going to become some homophobe’s victim

1. A gun is useful tool for acquiring meat in a sustainable way. Shout out to venison!

2. I am a trans woman. There are a lot of armed right wingers that would love to see me dead. They can try, but I’m not going to give them an easy time of it.

Guns make the police in my area more polite. That was thing I witnessed following the Ukraine revolution as well. Marshal law is more costly on an armed unwilling population.

I also hunt as part of our wild life management where I live.

Its also something that as a maker I love to tinker and build stuff for. Just one of those because you can kind of things

Self defense against wildlife and shady humans when I'm solo camping

I like shooting as a sport. Not into hunting but hitting targets is fun.

Im American. All the people who think the laws were never meant to apply to them already have more guns than I have friends. And when they die, their likely rotten kids will get them. I can either accept that I live in a country where only terrible people have guns(this includes the cops). Or I could do something about it and take my sefety into my own hands. Really simple choice at the end of the day.

Florida

I have guns for the same reason I have fishing rods and a bow. I enjoy it, and there's some satisfaction in being able to hunt or fish for a meal yourself. I didn't grow up getting to shoot much aside from a few rare afternoons out with a .22 when dad had time. While I fished a lot, didn't really get into shooting or hunting until after college. I started small game hunting with friends who would go out. While I had a lot of catching up to do, since I hadn't grown up hunting like they did, I eventually figured out how to clean game without making too much of a disaster of it. I enjoyed the independence of it, knowing more about the whole process and being able to do more for myself. Taught myself to tie flies, eventually started reloading my own ammo, then got further down the rabbit hole to casting bullets. For my leverguns with oversized bores (30-30 and 45-70), rolling my own ammo has been the best way for me to get decent accuracy. I have firearms because they're useful tools, and it's just darned fun to know that I cast the bullet that was loaded over the powder I measured, in the brass casing I trimmed and resized, and it hit the target waaay out there down range right where I wanted it to go.

Everyone I hook up with always asks if I have protection so I figure I might as well get some. 🤷‍♂️

need? no need. want/have? I tinkered and shot target with my (now passed) stepfather and we bonded over the science and nerdy parts of it. do i carry? nope.

I didn't ever want one until Trump threatened Canada and now I'm getting licenced. Just in case. That and winter survival training refresher. Hadn't done any of that since Scouts long ago.

I'd still die but maybe I last 20 minutes longer.

Whilst I do enjoy the military history of guns and have been to a shooting range in the USA before I don't want any in my home. Ifi had them before I might not have been around due to the relative easy way out.

Also they are very hard to get where I live. I like that a lot. I think that there a majority of stupid people that I think would be terrible gun owners around me. I think in general my life would be worse is a majority of people owned guns.