196

If you want gun control, the best thing you can do is encourage marginalized communities to get lots of guns. That has always driven gun reform in the past.

I don't trust myself with a gun, otherwise I'd get one.

its sad you even have to think about that.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

I used to sell guns at a major gun store, but I'm also not a traditional gun salesman, as I'm super liberal.

We had a trans woman come in to buy a gun, and a bunch of the other guys at the gun counter were snickering at her.

I went up to her and talked to her about guns, where she could get training, etc. She was a former marine who had been discharged when she transitioned and was really cool. She found out that I was a trustee of a church that was super progressive and that we hosted the annual transgender day of remembrance, and she and I both had a great experience.

Turned out she'd been shunned by her church, and she was super excited to learn that there were prone who shared her faith and hobbies that weren't bigots, and we both had a great time.

She ended up telling others about her experience, and I ended up becoming the regional gun sales guy for the transgender community, and that kinda spread into the queer community in general.

The coolest part though was how it affected the other sales guys. When she first arrived, they said they were dirty I had to deal with the freak. Then when they realized I was fine with it they'd joke about "Chilie's new girlfriend" any time a trans person would come in.

But sometimes I'd be busy with another customer, and another salesman would end up helping them. Eventually, some of them became more open and realized that people are people.

I'd say of the 30 gun line guys, 10-12 changed his they treated queer customers throughout my time there, and a few were fine before. When I moved on, probably 3/4 were fine with it.

While those numbers aren't amazing overall, it was a huge improvement from the 10% early on. I don't think I'd go back to gun sales. I have a career job now and make more than triple the money with great benefits and predictable hours. But I like to think that my time behind the counter made the gun-buying experience better for customers of all kinds at that particular mega-store.

I want a bunch of new gun restrictions, but I'm not against gun ownership. I want required training, required gun safes, background checks, and extra strict laws around higher magazine and fire rate weapons. So while most people would describe me as "anti gun", (I think it's just common sense), I totally support responsible gun ownership especially if you're in a marginalized group that is legitimately in danger.

You have the right to kill in self defense. Many countries consider self defense from a credible threat to be just cause to kill someone.

Even those countries that don't permit their citizens to use lethal force in self defense are hypocrites, because they will have an army and some branch of armed law enforcement.

Trans people are much more likely to be murdered than cis people. Being armed to mitigate that risk is a not an unreasonable decision. In the US, if a transphobe poses an imminent threat to your life you DO have a legal right to kill them, in most states, laws do vary.

If they are coming after them for something stupid like that?

So I started blasting

Self defense is a human right.

Yes, because there's far too many shitheads that would Matthew Shepard OOP.