“We don’t believe those rights should be subjected to majority vote.”
Conservatives are testing new tactics to keep abortion off the ballot following a series of high-profile defeats.
In Arizona, Florida, Nevada and other states, several anti-abortion groups are buying TV and digital ads, knocking on doors and holding events to persuade people against signing petitions to put the issue before voters in November.
Republicans are also appealing to state courts to keep referendums off the ballot, while GOP lawmakers in states including Missouri and Oklahoma are pushing to raise the threshold for an amendment to pass or to make it to the ballot in the first place.
The emerging strategy aims to prevent abortion rights groups from notching their third, and largest, set of ballot measure victories since Roe v. Wade was overturned. And while conservatives celebrated the fall of Roe for returning the question of abortion rights to the people, these efforts are seen as an implicit admission that anti-abortion groups don’t believe they can win at the ballot box — even in red states — and that the best way to keep restrictions on the procedure is to keep voters from weighing in directly.
POC, women and LGBT folks are, and have been, the biggest gun buying demographic for a few years. Ain’t that somethin’? This old white guy is here for it.
Gun are not magical protection talismans. Learn, train, go learn and train more. Know your rights, know the laws in your area.
There’s a steep learning/practice curve. For example, the safety rules are childishly simple. What’s not simple is practicing them religiously, practicing until mere knowledge becomes reflex.
And then you have to ask, and answer yourself, under what conditions am I willing to take a human life?
"I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart.”
― Stephen King, The Gunslinger
Think on it.
If you’re willing to go through all that, get a fucking gun. If not, do not.
As someone who served (for school, not the cause), I disagree.
If these fascists get their way and start coming for “undesirables,” better a poor shot than no shot at all. Training dramatically increases the chance of hitting someone, but again, better to have a chance than none at all.
And you can learn the basics in a couple outings. Guns are not a steep learning curve, especially if you focus on a single model. They’re so easy to learn, a willfully illiterate Alabamian can do it. The bar for a successful IKEA assembly is far higher.
Gun people, by that I mean gun fetishizers, just like to play pretend it’s highly technical to be a basic user. Like 90s dads with camcorders.
They’re a dangerous tool largely designed to be user friendly, nothing more.
Focusing on a single weapon is great, and a great point! LOL, I’m all over the place.
But the number of women I’ve dated that have a 9, uh, somewhere, uh, just in case… Having said that, the women I’ve taught are always far better than the guys.
You got a point in that something is better than nothing. Mostly. I just don’t want people carrying around guns when they haven’t made the commitment to training, safety and the law. Good way to get themselves, and others, in worse trouble.
From what people say on nextdoor.com, it’s astonishing what my neighbors think makes for a justified shooting.
And yes, I fully expect the fascists to come for many of us. We’ve had it easy and peaceful in America, pretty much forever. I’ve outlined a scenario many times where my conservative neighbors come to disarm me, “for my own good”.
I suspect that’s the same reason all the women I’ve worked with in software development have been really good at their jobs: the ones who wouldn’t have been aren’t there at all in the first place.
The ones who were merely average were driven out early, along with some who were truly good.
Trades ringing in, that’s my theory, too.
I won’t commit to saying I can do something professionally unless I’m damned fucking sure I can, because any small failures will become glued in everyone’s memories, kind of like me being around at all tends to stand out. It’s exhausting.
Good points, and yeah ego gets in the way with a lot of CoD obsessed dudes.
I’d rather we didn’t live in gun dystopia, but the fascist gun nutters are ironically the reason why everyone else kind of needs one.
So with that said. Better to buy one commitment or no, with the only proviso being a trigger lock and keeping the key in a secured place. Then it’s an insurance policy if there’s violence in the streets. With any luck, You can easily fumble through looking through a keyhole or smart doorbell at a fascist banging on your door demanding to take/end you, bringing the gun downstairs quietly, aiming straight at the door, and clumsily shooting through.
Again, better that chance than just accepting violent death.
To that last point, it freaks me out how many people intend to lie down and die rather than fight back.
“You gonna fight tanks and planes, LOL!”
No. I’m going to defend my family and my home. If that means my death, that was in the cards anyway. Rather die with my boots on than starve on a train.
Better to die on your feet than live OR die on your knees. Agreed.
What’s the LV part of your username? We should be friends. :)
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That’s what well-regulated militia are for.
Get a gun if you don’t want to put your life in someone else’s hands when the shit hits the fan.