politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
I'm sure everybody gets the reference, but Junior is referring to reports that Hamas used hang gliders or paragliders during their attack on Israel.
So, he's just trying to use a dog whistle here to try to remind Republicans that we should all be afraid of brown people. However, dog whistles are supposed to be subtle, so that the people who it isn't targeted for, won't even hear it. He's so inept at public speaking that he can't even do that correctly.
On a personal level, I live in Texas. I really don't want to have a gun, but if I did buy one, it wouldn't be out of fear of brown people paragliding into my house. It would be out of fear of white fascist Republicans breaking down my front door.
Less a dog whistle and more of a tuba in this case, I think.
Wolf tuba
Chihuahua Sousaphone
As a Portland resident, that's a logical fear:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/proud-boys-oath-keepers-antifa-portland-violence-spreading-1224762/
Members of any at risk group should consider being armed. The police aren't there to protect you and there have been court cases which ruled they have no obligation to do so.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1525280/
"In a 7–2 opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that due process principles did not create a constitutional right to police protection, despite the existence of a court-issued restraining order."
One thing I know, every liberal gun owner is a marksman. They've trained with their firearms and know them fifty times better than a Conservative does.
Oh look, it's me! ;)
7.62-MM M14 with a walnut stock. Trained with it during my military days but I didn't take it on deployment. I was stuck with the M16A2 in Afghanistan and M4 carbine in Iraq.
I had someone not believe me when I told them they still issued M16s in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Wikipedia told me they switched to the M4 entirely!?!?"
Yeah, okay bud, just like they're going to be using nothing but the M5 in another decade.
Or two...
Or three.
I bet you could get issued a M1 under the right circumstances.
People who don't know how deep military warehouses go. Wouldn't surprise me if there weren't some WWI field phones floating around somewhere.
Isn't the Army still issuing M1903s? With warehouses like that, they'll never fully modernize!
Nice! Mine's a Henry in .45-70 Government. Good for most big game in North America. Marlin briefly had theirs rated for T-Rex as a cross promo for Jurassic World. LOL.
Is this gun tiny or is this table enormous?
Oh, it's a big damn table. LOL.
It's a normal sized rifle, it's not a cannon or anything. Spec sheet has it at 38.1" (96.77cm) with a 19.8" (50.3cm) barrel. Weighs just over 7 pounds unloaded.
European here, what is that? Genuine question, it looks very shiney and expensive.
That is a side-gated, lever action, Henry rifle, chambered in .45-70 government. It's rated for any big game in North America. With an added scope with 5x magnification.
https://www.henryusa.com/caliber/45-70/
Thank you!
you are goddamn right
Yes Don Jr is right that we should have guns generally, but more because of what his dad's cult is doing.
Don't ever believe that any gun control laws will disarm those guys. It's way too easy to hide guns and ammo, and there are hundreds of millions of them all over the country.
So it's best to have it and not need it, rather than needing it and not having it. Because they are going to have it anyway.
Even if this is true, counterintuitively, gun control laws will still work. We've seen this exact thing in Australia. (Which admittedly is easier to do because it's an island)
What happens is that guns become more rare, and yes, only bad guys and cops have access to guns, however, because guns are rare, it's much harder even for bad guys to get more guns. Guns become much more valuable, and as they're valuable, bad guys will become reluctant to use them unless the reward is great. If you take a $1000 gun to rob $50 from a 7-11, and if you get caught, you're losing $950. You're way better off just using a knife or something, and then you can sell the gun.
So even if only bad guys have guns, guns are still used in fewer crimes. Everybody gets safer, little by little. Eventually, they're only going to use guns for crimes with huge payoffs. And they were going to do that, anyways, even if there weren't gun control laws.
Well we're not going to do any of that in the USA. Fortunately our gun rights are inalienable and confirmed in triplicate by our Supreme Court.
I would never be happy with living in a society where the cops and criminals are the only ones with guns. Freedom is far more valuable to my life than security, and my security is perfectly fine for my risk tolerance level.
First of all, that isn't even internally consistent. Security is the thing that ensures your life, not freedom. You may decide that freedom is more valuable than your security, but that is clearly risking your life, so freedom cannot, by definition, be more valuable to your life than security.
Second, I guess a guy like you must not support the military at all. Every military person sacrifices some of their freedom to give us security. Former President Trump has said that the soldiers who died in battle defending our country were "suckers" and "losers". I guess you'd find nothing to disagree with there, right?
Third, you're clearly referencing this Benjamin Franklin quote, but you're misquoting it, so I'll go ahead and quote it exactly. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." We're not talking about an "essential" liberty here, nor are we talking about "a little temporary" safety. We're talking about an unimportant liberty and long-lasting safety.
And it's not just your safety. You're willing to sacrifice the safety of every American citizen, not for your liberty, but because you have a toy that you like to play with, and you like to pretend like you could use your toys to defend yourself, when the truth is that you're unlikely to ever run into a situation like that, and it's even unlikelier that you'd have such a situation were there decent gun control laws. You're like a person who buys a lottery ticket and starts maxing out your credit card because you think it's likely you're going to win. But it's actually absurdly unlikely.
You're optimizing for an unlikely situation at the cost of a known likely situation. It's insanity.
You seem to like to make a lot of assumptions about people. Whatever, spend your time how you like.
All of the Trump people are fucking morons, and nothing about me has anything to do with them, other than I commented on this post about one of them. I'm pro-military, proud of my friends who served and sacrificed their mental health to fight in the oil wars ostensibly for our country. I'm also smart enough that I never enlisted and I make a great living doing work that is mostly risk-free.
Gun rights are here to stay in America whether you like it or not. I choose to accept and embrace that liberty, and I'll support it permanently.
Holy shit. That means that you actually do believe that people who enlist aren't smart enough. I happen to know a few people who enlisted who were very smart. I can't believe you'd actually admit to thinking something like that.
It's pretty obvious that it was not smart to enlist to fight the War on Terror. It was all bullshit, since Saudi Arabia was the perpetrator of 9/11 and we never attacked them.
I'm not afraid to admit anything that I honestly believe. I'm quite content with the quality of my character and beliefs, and my life is pretty great.
Great! Now that you've freely admitted that you think you're smarter than any enlisted person, what other beliefs do you have that would get you pilloried if you admitted them publicly? For example, maybe you think that some races are smarter than others, or perhaps you think the sexes are not equal.
If you're not afraid to admit anything that you honestly believe, then you should have no problem listing your other bigotries right here.
Wow you are really reaching for some hate material aren't you. You want to build up a "bad guy" persona to represent me, because you don't like the ideas that I have expressed.
Bottom line is that I'm here to stand for the rights of Americans, and I will never acquiesce to any restrictions on our freedom. That's what the topic was about and I'm done.
I don't understand. You said you weren't afraid to admit anything you honestly believe. You've already admitted to bigotry against enlisted soldiers. What's stopping you here? The reason that makes sense to me is "fear", but you've just said that you're not afraid, so nothing you're saying makes sense.
Thanks for giving me the last word. I don't have to build up a "bad guy" persona for you. Why do you think it is that, in America, when you learn that a person is strongly against gun control, insisting it's their inalienable right to own guns, you have a very good chance of guessing what they think about abortion, or about immigration, or about gender roles? It's because many of these opinions are rooted in some sort of antisocial fear of "others", while the remaining opinions are simply the opinions of your chosen groups. You're afraid of standing out against your groups. It's all irrational fear, but people with your beliefs have the gall to think it's intellect.
You have already chosen a group of people that you think you're superior to. Your true fascist beliefs are leaking through. You are, by your own admissions, the bad guy. I just wanted you to list your other fear-based bigoted opinions so that anybody else who comes across this thread will be left with no doubt about it. But it seems that you're too afraid to admit all of your true beliefs. Hmm... It seems like I do understand, after all. Take it easy, and try to remember. These people you hate and fear, they're people, too.
Fuck off dipshit. You are wrong about everything.
You said you were "done" in your previous comment. I took that to mean you weren't commenting anymore, but now I can see that you were using a cooking analogy. Your previous comment was your best effort, as pathetic as it was, and everything following that will simply be overcooking, which ruins all of your previous effort.
Unless having it puts you at higher risk of suicide, in which case maybe don't have it.
You’re more likely to injury or kill yourself or family than an intruder, so there’s that too.
That's why I'd like a gun collective. They're kept access controlled, and have a range and an ammo loading rig and some cleaning stations and earplugs and stuff. That way not only would I have access to well-maintained guns and ammo in a SHTF scenario, but I'd also have a place to get good without keeping them at home.
Seems like a great way to try out different kinds too.
I want a hippie version of a Rod & Gun Club. Community garden, shooting range, picnic and camping areas, managed foraging paths.
Oregon seems like a place that would exist. I have no evidence whatsoever of it, it just feels right
I think you are describing a gun club.
The preppers never made sense to me. The world ends and you want a weapon. For what? To murder someone over the last loaf of bread? In a disaster the best way to get out of it is to team up with other pool, share and trade resources. My life is much more secure if I am surrounded by people who have enough vs people who don't.
What kinda person thinks to themselves "oh the world ends guess I can finally commit all those murders that I wanted to" vs "the world ended let's start planting some crops and depend on shared resources until then"?
In some places, part of obtaining a firearms license involves being a member of good standing at a range.
Not in America of course, where pinkie promising you know what you're doing and won't leave you gun laying around is good enough.
Legitimate thing to fear. And what are you going to do, call the cops? You'll just have more of them.
Who would then execute you on sight. Even if you managed to shoot your way out, sooner or later they'll find you and kill you.
Guns don't work against state violence. By the time you need them, you've already lost.
As a Texan, a lot of the fascist republicans you run into day to day are not in government. Not federal, not state. Terrified irrational morons who only see through a veil of hate are a real concern.
They are in your trailer parks and rural areas. In Texas, it would take me less than an hour to go from downtown to rural. In fact, its a straight shot down the interstate.
Rifles won't stop a tank. Good luck hitting a bomber. The government, especially in the US, is too numerous and too well equipped. Jim Bob and his inbred son Rusty are much more of a concern and manageable with a rifle.
They were armed by the same grossly inadequate gun laws and will use the same "he had a gun" excuse the cops do.
They'll be armed the same as you, and will have the initiative, which makes this not an ideal solution.
I have a strong belief in my ability to survive without violating my personal ethics. This is one reason why I don't own a gun today. Like I said, I can only imagine purchasing a gun out of fear, and I don't have that fear yet.
As of now, I think myself much safer without a gun.
Well I mean we are always hearing about how extreme and radical they are. I wouldn't be surprised if we see them coming in on skateboards next.