I’ve always been pro gun, but I wasn’t a gun owner until the pandemic hit and the riots really started to ramp up. Fuck if I’m going to allow someone into my home like that.

Jan 6th and the way the terrorists have been treated since. Uvalde and the lack of police intervention as children had their heads blown off.

I don’t feel safe anymore.

That one insurrectionist literally shot his gun at police, they left and let him “sleep it off”. Anyone else would have had a swat team called and been turned into a soup by police. He got 2 years, a slap on the wrist, for attempted murder of police.

They are protecting domestic terrorists.

I’d say 1/6 was a fairly big part of why I chose to get armed. I’ve never really been wealthy, but had kind of come to terms with the police response in my area. I’m not a little fella so I figured I’d probably be ok. I liked shooting in my youth, but it struck me as an expensive hobby I probably didn’t need to start.

One of the more frightening aspects of 1/6 was the stark difference in police response between a crowd saying hay don’t shoot us and throw us in jail so much and a crowd saying: it’s time to overthrow the United States government.

I realized it’s not just day to day police indifference that I’d have to worry about. Even small scale political violence will most likely be protected or aided by an increasingly militarized police force.

I mean some of those rioters could have been my neighbors. Red Dawn was suddenly much less “as likely as the zombie apocalypse”, and more maybe a gun or two and some ammunition in the closet isn’t such a bad idea.

The final kick in the pants was when proud boys were armed and marching two blocks away from my house and accomplished their mission by interrupting a drag brunch with police watching.

I don’t know what’s in store for the future, but I’m armed and trying to get proficient. Hopefully, it’s just a fun hobby. I do really enjoy shooting and always have. And I really really hope my guns remain toys and never become tools.