I was a range officer while in the military. If anybody in WNC need some training I would be happy to help. Training and practice is the key to firearm safety.
this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2025
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Thank you for offering your experience.
It is all I have to offer. The bottom line is train like you fight. Practice with your weapon.
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It's not fear...
It's logical risk management.
And I've been saying for a while it's past the point of a handgun for personal defense. Plated vests and rifles need to be the minimum.
This ain't as bad as it can get, and there is zero reason to think shits gonna get better before it stops getting worse.
I'm a die hard anti-gun liberal & I have 100% thought about getting a gun.
I'm a leftist and life long gun owner, I go to the range every other weekend and enjoy it greatly as a hobby. I shoot competively in both long range and pistol competitions. I also think we are in dire need of much strickter gun control here in the US. I would say a full 80% of gun owners should not be allowed to have them due to a lack of training and understanding of firearms and their use.
If you're thinking about buying a gun I would suggest first going to a range and taking a basic firearms class. I would suggest finding one of the corporate owned chains simply because your less likely to run into the wrong (far right wing) type of gun enthusiast. RangeUSA is a good option. But really any range will have classes available for first time gun owners, usually for under $100. They also offer rentals once you've familiarized yourself with safe operation and handling. For home self defence purposes I always reccomend a mid or fullsize 9mm handgun. They have relatively little recoil, are plentiful, cheap, and easy to handle.
I was trying to steer people toward a 9mm handgun over a pump shotgun for HD here a little while back and people didn't want to hear it. Almost no one fires defensively with ear protection, among all the other downsides imaging your ears ringing for 2 mins after a singe shot before youre able to hear again, no thank you.
They may be thinking as my aunt/uncle do - the sound of the pump action is the first defense. After that the ears are a small problem by comparison to what gets through the first defense.
I'd much rather have a handgun myself, but that may be the mentality.
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I have mixed feels on that 9mm v pump shotty for the home debate. Personally I’d argue for an AR over the shotgun, but that’s less universally legal and doesn’t have the same binary roadmap of “870 or 590, who cares” and the AR field is FILLED with vendor trash.
But. If it’ll literally never leave the house and you can shoot it, a 12 gauge pump beats the pistol every day imo. Pick a hallway/stairwell, and camp your chosen angle with said shotgun. Compared to a pistol it’s hands down better; shooting handguns quickly and accurately is HARD. The handgun gives up a stock, longer sight rib/radius, use of slugs, and a much better trigger without throwing money away.
The handgun’s primary benefit as a platform is concealment. That’s it. So if someone literally only has $600 and needs a catch all solution - police trade-in Glock 19/17, a real holster, and (plz please puleaze) a lockbox of some kind. If they can swing another $300 or so, then add on a shotgun.
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I grew up around guns, I'm rather familiar with them. That said refamilliarizing myself with it is an excellent idea.
I was seriously looking into a shotgun until we decided to flee the country instead
Mossberg shockwave, small, 5 shot, 12 gauge
Even legal in Cali
Edit: can't modify it at all tho :(
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Yup, I was pretty anti gun until about 6 months ago. Now I have three (pistol, AR-15, shotgun).
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Im glad im not the only one. It's generally something I keep to myself. I fear im running out of time to make a decision
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I'm on the left, never been anti gun but never owned a firearm till this gestapo crap started. I do not recognize the authority of ICE to question me, as a born US citizen I am not required to carry proof of citizenship. They come to my front door I'm not opening it and if they break my door down they'll have my Beretta 1301 answering. I'd rather die in a firefight and taking some scum down with me than getting disappeared to some foreign prison because I had the audacity to be born brown.
Slightly unrelated but I live in a liberal county in Texas and am somewhat removed from all this and at the beginning I thought it was the news just making stuff up but I recently visited a family member in Chicago and I shit you not ICE and the police are straight up chasing brown people. If they see a Mexican they will interrogate you on the spot and god forbid you speak Spanish. It’s absolutely insane what we are allowing as a society and if this continues we will have a US citizen killed at a protest in the not too distant future.
MAGA won't back down if they don't get a bloody nose. Be it self defense or a civil war, the good guys need to be able to trade shots when the time comes.
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And just like that, the GOP will be in favor of gun control.
California's famous anti-gun policies were born out of Republican fear of the Black Panthers.
they have to find a way to be in favor of gay oral first (trump blowing bubba and putin having the kompromat), but yes that's on the list too
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Pistols
The Pink Pistols is an LGBTQ gun rights organization in the United States and Canada. Their motto is "Pick on someone your own caliber".[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_Shooting_Sports_of_Utah
Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah is a group of gun rights advocates in Utah. It supports the Pink Pistols' idea that was described nationally in 2000 by writer Jonathan Rauch for the legal, responsible and safe use of weapons for their self defense, recreation and shooting sports.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Rifle_Association
The Socialist Rifle Association (SRA) is a socialist gun rights advocacy group based in the United States, which is dedicated to "providing working class people the information they need to be effectively armed for self and community defense."[5][6][self-published source] The group advocates for Second Amendment gun rights from a left-wing perspective.[7]
https://blog.socialistra.org/official-statement-on-recent-doj-discussions/
Official Statement on Recent DOJ Discussions
The Socialist Rifle Association opposes in the strongest terms the stripping away of gun rights for our trans comrades. Trump's DOJ is far beyond the pale having floated the idea.
It's also worth noting that the major gun rights groups, which tend to be on the right side of the spectrum, also condemned the Trump administration for suggesting that trans people should be disarmed:
https://www.newsweek.com/gun-rights-group-condemn-trump-transgender-firearm-proposal-2125307
The National Rifle Association insists the Second Amendment "isn't up for debate" as senior Justice Department officials have reportedly held internal deliberations about issuing regulations restricting transgender individuals from possessing guns in the wake of a shooting at a Catholic school in Minnesota that left two children dead and 17 others injured on August 27.
The Second Amendment Foundation, a Washington state-based gun rights advocacy nonprofit group, also blasted the Department of Justice's reported consideration of new firearm restrictions, saying it "stands resoundingly in opposition" of any such policies.
Gun Owners of America, a Virginia-based nonprofit with more than two million members and supporters, also denounced the Trump's administration reported plans.
"Gun Owners of America does not compromise with our support for the right of all the People to keep and bear arms," GOA senior vice president Erich Pratt told Newsweek in a statement. "That means we oppose any and all gun bans — whether proposed by Republicans or Democrats. Anti-gunners would happily label every gun owner 'crazy' in order to confiscate our firearms and infringe on our rights. We're not going to give up an inch."
The National Association for Gun Rights, meanwhile, noted that only a Title III court can adjudicate someone as "mentally defective" for purposes of firearm restriction.
"It is a judicial branch function, not an executive branch function," NAGR president Dudley Brown told Newsweek in a statement. "This process — and only this process — is available today as it may apply to transgenders or to any American suffering from mental health issues, but taking rights away from any American without due process is an affront to the Constitution. All ex parte gun bans are unconstitutional."
IRL events is filled with irony.
Dems are the ones that tried to implement "may-issue" gun permit laws, which delegated the power to issue gun permits to police discretion, guess what happens if a black dude tries to get a gun permit and the officer was white. See the problem? "I have a bad feeling about this guy, DENIED!"
Meanwhile, the 6 authoritarian far-right supreme court justices ironically were the ones that stuck down those shitty laws, and now it's "shall-issue" nationwide, meaning cops can no longer use their discretion or "gut feeling" to deny gun permits, if a person meets the requirements, they are required to issue a gun permit. Makes the process more fair.
Such irony, authoritarians end up making carrying arms easier.
Only ironic if you don't see the motivations behind their actions.
Liberals who feared a school shooter or deranged ex aren't the ones arming up now. Conservatives who knocked down the regulations aren't the ones who feel particularly threatened by a liberal with a gun.
authoritarians end up making carrying arms easier
But organizing any kind of community defense significantly harder. There's no magic bullet you can buy to protect yourself from the violence of your neighbors, much less your external oppressors.
A great deal of the pro and anti gun frameworks have been about organizing local political interests into activist groups and police-aligned influencers.
The pro-gun groups have won primarily because their organizations are in tight with sitting administrations, but because they simple have guns available to any dipshit with a credit card and a driver's license.
Remember folks: don't just buy it, train with it.
And if you can get like minded friends to do the same even better.
Personally I'm not a fan of handguns, I prefer rifles but both are good at poking holes.
Also be sure to pick a firearm that takes a common type of round, the last thing you need to worry about is trying to find some obscure round type when you need it.
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A reminder to all those who want to buy a gun for protection, get training and not just shooting at paper.
I can tell you that even just being a hunter, you're reaction to a situation that will involve potentially taking a life, you're not going to react the way you think you will when adrenaline is pumping through you.
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They shouldn't be buying them out of fear... It should be out of the drive for the protection of genuine humanity.
If it's about fear then America has no hope.
It is good that people finally understand why its important to be able to have these. That said make sure if you buy on to train with it. A weapon you hold but cannot use belongs to your enemy.
We're rightfully scared of right wingers
Good thing it is their right to keep and bear arms!
It isn't a political party issue, it's about defending rights when no one else can or will do it for you.
Gun rights are trans rights. They're gay rights. They're little old lady rights. They're white rights, black rights, legal immigrant rights. They're rights for weaklings, and rights for the strong.
That's the thing about rights - we are all entitled to them!
Now go get yourself some instruction about safety, and time at the range, and don't be stupid with your tools for death ☠️
Every "liberal" and "independent" should have at least one to carry in public and bigger one to defend your home and family with.
Don't be the victim of a deranged, unhinged, Trump supporter and/or masked men at your door trying to kill you and your golden retriever only for the "liberal MSM" to whitewash and it relegate it to the back page by noon.
Good.
Sucks it's out of fear, but John Brown would be proud nonetheless.
Can confirm. My local range is full of people of all types. Probably 40% female and all ages. Surprising considering I'm in a red state.
I grew up in a red family, in a red state. Everyone went to the gun range, including the women and children. It was encouraged, not gate-kept behind their strange gender rules. Probably the only thing that wasn't.
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Some of the bluest states are the hardest places to purchase firearms.
Ever been committed for mental issue or have a felony or are foreign born, tough cookies.
Some are even putting in financial requirements like WA just passed, so the poor liberals can't get their hands on a firearm.
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