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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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I find blanket statements encouraging people to buy guns to be disingenuous. They rarely if ever include any advice for how to store, maintain, or safely use a firearm.
Stuff like this: https://www.leatherman.com/blogeveryday7-tips-for-properly-maintaining-your-gun
People have easy access to guns, such as a Walmart, and I think a lot of people have inclinations to get armed if gun sales are anything to go by. But everyone running to buy guns and then cowering in their homes or apartments isn't going to do any good. We need people everywhere to get organized. Then people can make decisions together that reflect the circumstances that they live in. I'm not convinced I would be making my neighborhood safer by independently buying a firearm.
I've had two people show up, multiple times, on my family's property to do something with a small box, we aren't sure what. We solved that by putting a gate on the driveway they were using. Adding a gun to whatever those situations are wouldn't make them better.
If a fascist death squad rolls up to my house, I'm dead. Getting to shoot back with a rifle is a nice thought, but it's not going to stop them from killing me. An organized neighborhood that took steps to prevent violence, whether that's firearms or some other method, is always going to be more effective than anything I can do individually.
Also, even if most people did decide to buy guns, they probably wouldn't being carrying them at the places where domestic terrorist attacks happen. People usually don't take their guns to schools, work, places of worship, fairs, etc. I live in a liberal democracy. I do not want to have to take a rifle with me every time I go on a grocery run or shop at local stores.
Even if everyone did bring guns to every public or private space I have played and watched social deduction games. People are really bad at managing an unknown shooter situation. We make random guesses at best that lead to everyone getting killed. If I'm at the grocery store and people start shooting at each other, I have no way of knowing which person started it, which one is the fascist, who is acting in self defense or if the people standing where I can see them with a gun are actually the shooter. Everyone's best survival strategy is to runaway and that's something we can do without guns.
It's not enough or desirable for everyone to buy guns with no organization whatsoever. We need organized militias to combat domestic terrorists if we can't trust police to do it. Everyone walking around with a firearm is just cover for mass shooters if the majority of us do not know and trust the other people holding a gun.
I agree that organized militias are the way to go, probably with all the guns in an armory. My comment lacked nuance. But I still believe that the real power imbalance between the left and the right is a recipe for volatility. The perception of a credible defense would preclude the fascist death squad from showing up in the first place.