@ackzsel @seahorse @Jaytreeman ah yes, marginalized people who are regularly threatened by violence, armed fascists, and the state being willing to use firearms to defend themselves and their right to exist are totally the ones with the mentality of an 8-year-old, not the person who thinks we should literally just roll over and let people beat us up and murder us and eliminate us from public life in order to preserve some perfect pacifist moral high ground because firearms are an ooo spooky evil shibboleth only “bad guys” touch and “all violence is bad.” Thinking all violence, even in self-defense, is bad regardless of the context is totally a mature and well thought through position and not an overly simplistic view of how morality works. Believing that using a specific implement of violence is bad simply because a group you don’t like likes that tool is totally adult thinking. Believing in pure pacifism in the face of genocidal evil as if that’s in any way practical or moral is totally a nuanced adult view of the world and not the most simplistic 5-year-old understanding of morality that you get from children’s cartoons.

Hope alone will get you nowhere but beneath an authoritarian’s boot, figuratively or literally. Please be pragmatic.

Question for you: would you rather all the guns be in the hands of the government? Because guns won’t disappear due to your wish. In countries all over the world, conflict is very real and not having guns would mean utter defeat for those fighting against fascists.

We get it, it would be a different world if guns were never invented. But they have been. And relinquishing that power to those that would see you not exist simply isn’t an option anymore.