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submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

Several niche, left-leaning gun advocacy groups said that since the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, they can hardly keep up with the surging demand for firearms training.

With Donald Trump sending armed federal agents into communities around the country, even more once gun-shy liberals and leftists are considering getting armed.

And while Americans tend to think of gun owners as leaning more Republican and male, already more women, gay people and people of color have taken up arms in recent years, particularly after 2020.

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[-] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 43 points 7 months ago

i got my gun license. told some of my friends about it and now they are suspicous that i'm secretly right wing.

you can't win with this shit.

[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Allowing the enemy to be the only group who is armed and trained is not very bright position your friends are taking. A lot of leftist are armed because we know that all these threats that the right keeps making towards us are serious

[-] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

i never said they were smart people. but where i live it's a super common attitude and I am the weirdo.

To me guns are just tools. I think tool nuts are just as weird as gun nuts.

I know one guy who just collects expensive tools to oogle them and doesn't even use them. He buys like $200 hammers.

Allowing the enemy to be the only group who is armed and trained is not very bright position your friends are taking. A lot of leftist are armed because we know that all these threats that the right keeps making towards us are serious

[-] bytesonbike@discuss.online 13 points 7 months ago

Been a liberal gun owner for a decade. Once in a while, I go to a range and these numbnuts want to talk politics thinking I'm "on their side". Like no dude, I'm here to practice to protect myself from people like you!

[-] nile_istic@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

Something that may help is explaining that gun control policy originated as a means of disarming minorities, specifically black people.

Black Panthers in Oakland, CA would open carry and follow cops around whenever they came into black neighborhoods, in an attempt to curtail the rampant police brutality black people regularly endured. Naturally, a bunch of old white 2A-loving Republicans (including the fucking NRA) didn't like that, and altogether signed off on the Mulford Act, the first major gun control legislation in the country, supported by "2A advocates" (read, in this instance: racists) for the sole purpose of better allowing police to terrorize black citizens.

I was once pretty strongly anti-gun too (less for political reasons and more because I saw a guy get his chest blown out at work when I was in my early 20s), but the knowledge that the true intention underpinning gun control and anti-gun legislation has always been to disarm and weaken marginalized communities changed my mind.

Not sure it will help with your friends, but idk. Worth a try maybe.

[-] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

they don't care about history, facts, or reality. just crude stereotypes that anyone who has a gun must be a trump supporter and how their anti-gun ignorance makes them morally superior. they have imaginary bullshit lines in their head. like if i bought a truck it would be the same 'betrayal' to them.

[-] nile_istic@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

They don't sound much like friends tbh. Sorry bud.

[-] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

That's okay. I live in a state where the main sponsor of banning assault weapons has gone out shooting the very same weapons after they got their nonsense bill passed.

Keep in mind it bans firearms with threaded barrels in other words we have to be deaf to train and use our firearms but she doesn't.

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[-] daannii@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago

I think I'm going to ask my grandpa to teach me about guns and how to shoot. He's on a farm and has a gun for protecting his chickens.

Lucky for me, my grandpa hates Trump. He's always been democratic. So I think he will understand why I'm asking.

I'll probably get a rifle. Maybe if grandpa has an extra I'll just borrow it. Practice at a local range.

I feel like this is a skill I need now. Never thought I would unless I got my own farm and chickens.

Owning a gun isn't good enough on its own tho. I need to know how to use it. And how to be accurate with it. How to maintenance it.

But part of me is like. ... If I ask grandpa to teach me. I'm admitting something about this country and myself that I don't want to admit.

  1. That I need to protect myself/others because bad armed people are coming for us. -Thats terrifying

  2. That I am preparing to kill someone if need be. -equally terrifying.

There is a responsibility here that I'm not sure I'm ready to take on. But it's better to be prepared than not to be prepared.

[-] Seleni@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

They are terrifying things to admit to yourself. Hold on to that feeling, but train anyways. Because those thoughts will keep you from becoming like those republicans who gleefully wave their guns around and talk about shooting all the people they don’t like. And the training means you can protect yourself and others.

Guns are a tool that kills things, and so you never pick one up unless you intend to kill. But sometimes, regrettably, you have to.

[-] btsax@reddthat.com 5 points 7 months ago

and so you never pick one up unless you intend to kill.

This is a bit overdramatic as many gun owners have only ever shot at targets on ranges

[-] ameancow@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

I’m admitting something about this country and myself that I don’t want to admit.

Don't feel bad, a lot of us have been down this road. I've done it several times.

We never stop learning difficult truths about the world around us.

I think the day you stop having these shifts in your attitude is the day you've finally stopped caring enough to actually self-examine, so it means you're still alive and conscious if nothing else.

I hope if nothing else, you and your grandfather make memories together. We don't always get to choose how and what kind of bonding memories we make with family, but take what you can when you can. It will be over soon enough.

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[-] Rhoeri@piefed.world 22 points 7 months ago

And this is why they now want gun control.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

They don't want "gun control". They want "justification for their use of force".

Trump would have loved if Alex Pretti had actually pulled his gun and landed a few shots before he was taken down. He'd have loved if Renee Good had actually hit an ICE agent with her car. These events could have served to justify their draconian misconduct, at least within his own conservative base.

Tightening gun laws to the point where all the regulations around private ownership don't matter is about explaining away why you can pop someone in the head while crossing the street and claim they were breaking the law after the fact. It isn't about restricting gun ownership. There's virtually no fear among these federal agencies that any liberal group might organize an effective military deterrence. Nobody is actually afraid of the "liberal gun owner", because individual lone wolf gun owners aren't an effective opposition to a well-organized and well-funded Gestapo.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I swear, we see this article every six fucking months as though its news and not an ad to sell more guns.

[-] Taldan@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

More liberals buying guns is a good thing. I don't think universal gun ownership is a good thing, but it's better than the clear power imbalance we have now

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[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 7 months ago

Probably a positive feedback loop.

Another article, another influx. That makes the next article news worthy

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this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
380 points (99.2% liked)

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