Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lagslayer]

Why or why not?
If so, what kind?

Yes because 2nd amendment. The right to bare arms is important.
Glock 19, and a Mossberg 500

[WealthyRadish]

I'm also grateful for the right to bare arms, particularly this time of year.

[Playergamer]

I really don't understand the "but US spends hundreds of billions on defense, how could guns ever compete" crowd.

Imagine for a second that ever deer hunter in the US decides it's time for revolution, gets their ATV/pickup, and disappears into the woods. That's ten million+ riflemen. The one million Army, Reserve, and National Guard troops are deployed to fight the insurgency, not including the number drop for non-combatants and desertions. IEDs probably wouldn't cause much damage, but they'd force the troops to remain in bulky tanks and MRAPs. It'd be easy for woodsmen in light vehicles to outmaneuver them, and control the countryside. An American insurgency could only be shut down with more troops and more cash, or political reform. The former would only make the government more unpopular; the latter would be a victory for the guerrillas. Sure, they won't form an army and march on the capitol. They don't have to.

To answer the original question: yep. Nothing serious, couple of bolt-actions and a shotgun.

Edit: That original scenario is purely military, too. A real civilian insurgency, including cities and "freedom fighters" hidden in them, would be impossible to clamp down on. Sure, you can track the evil terrorists with your state of the art technology; but you can't get them all.

[Baffler]

Yep. A couple rifles, a shotgun, and an old revolver. I inherited most of them, but the revolver I bought just recently from a guy moving out of the country. I used to use the .30-06 for hunting deer but those are pricey bullets. The (20 gauge) shotgun and (.22) rifle are mostly for plinking since that's cheap and easy to handle. The revolver's for emergencies, but I chose that one in particular because it looks nice (and it's damn well built) plus I'd probably never see another one for so cheap as long as I live.

[Frumple]

Only one that's actually mine is an old (and by old, I mean it's over a century old) .22 rifle, inherited. Own it for that reason, on top of the potential selling opportunity if things got sketchy enough. Last I checked on it it's still in fairly good shape, and you can usually get a pretty decent price for an antique rifle, particularly if it's still in working condition.

Been a while since I used it, though. Last time I fired anything not air-propelled was a year or three back, for a concealed carry course whatsit. Opportunity's there, since while I only own the one there's like a dozen or three (mixed rifle, shotgun, and handgun of various makes) I have easy access to, on top of family that's aware of where the local ranges are if for whatever reason I wanted to mess around with something fancier. Just not really interested these days. Don't hunt, far too aware of the statistics when it comes to self-defense, most use I'm likely to have any time soon is possible snake killing or somethin', and that don't exactly need rust shook off to manage. Or much in the way of firepower really. Killed a few rattlers et al over the years just with a BB gun, heh. Target/skeet shooting's interesting enough, but it also involves outside and money, with the former being miserable in this goddamn swamp and the latter scarce enough at th'mo spending it on ammo is... kinda' stupid, if you're not going to hunt with it.

Fair bit more active with the things when I was younger, though. Still didn't hunt (most wild game tastes kinda' nasty to me for whatever reason, and pure sports hunting is an abomination), but more leisure shooting, occasional skeet et al outings, that sort of thing. Was a'ight. Appeal largely wore off at some point, but it's not a regret or somethin'. Probably get talked into going to a range at some point in the next few years, I'unno. Actually never shot at a proper firing range, now that I think about it. Bummed around an outside police range a bit and some of the stuff at the safety courses I've been to might have counted, plenty of shooting in the woods or clay/sand pits or whatev', but never a commercial range.

[Max™]

People don't own guns, guns own people... wait, that doesn't work at all.

[Neonivek]

People don't own guns, guns own people... wait, that doesn't work at all.

Don't you know? You are more likely to use a gun on someone you know!

Except you know... the majority of the time you will need to use a gun is against someone you know...

[Strife26]

I have a DPKM AR15 that I greatly love and a bolt gun that's quite nice, although long distance shooting is something I'm terrible at.

Unfortunately, while I'm stuck in Californialand I keep both locked up in storage, so no range time for me.

[martinuzz]

I really don't understand the "but US spends hundreds of billions on defense, how could guns ever compete" crowd.

Imagine for a second that ever deer hunter in the US decides it's time for revolution, gets their ATV/pickup, and disappears into the woods. That's ten million+ riflemen. The one million Army, Reserve, and National Guard troops are deployed to fight the insurgency, not including the number drop for non-combatants and desertions. IEDs probably wouldn't cause much damage, but they'd force the troops to remain in bulky tanks and MRAPs. It'd be easy for woodsmen in light vehicles to outmaneuver them, and control the countryside. An American insurgency could only be shut down with more troops and more cash, or political reform. The former would only make the government more unpopular; the latter would be a victory for the guerrillas. Sure, they won't form an army and march on the capitol. They don't have to.

Let's just hope that the 10+ million riflemen that took to the woods aren't Trump supporters that decided it's time to kill all black folks, gays, jews and Mexicans, cause I fear we might need to nuke you in that case, for lack of other options.

[Neonivek]

https://www.quora.com/Could-all-the-armed-civilians-of-the-US-actually-take-on-and-defeat-the-US-military-and-police-in-the-event-a-dictator-takes-control

Well there are MANY issues involving this. The question is to what degree could the Military cow the entire US population into conformity.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

We have an Armchair General Thread for discussing whether or not the American population could defeat a professional military. Talk about the mechanics of armed insurrection there.

[Neonivek]

We have an Armchair General Thread for discussing whether or not the American population could defeat a professional military. Talk about the mechanics of armed insurrection there.

Sorry my mistake (though that thread is dead, so posting there would be Necroposting)

The fact of the matter is the weapons themselves aren't THAT important. They aren't unimportant... But whether the American weapon have RPGs or Pistols doesn't (well maybe RPGs... that is a LOT of fire power).

Ultimately though... Armed Insurrection probably doesn't work with the sheer difference of power and organization put against them.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Since when does anybody care about necros on Bay 12?

[SquatchHammer]

I am worried about this thread due to the ability to find people on the internet and to say what weapons you have could be problematic.

[Neonivek]

I am worried about this thread due to the ability to find people on the internet and to say what weapons you have could be problematic.

Personally I am a firm believer in Gun Control... but I am not a heated believer and know that a LOT of gun statistics are... we... fabricated or misleading.

Though I do not like carried Firearms, I find them obnoxious, intrusive, and immediately makes everything you say and do threatening. I actually would prefer concealed carry over carry... But I am sure I am a minority.

That is why I don't own a gun.

That and I live in Canada so to own a gun I'd need to take a gun safety course and buy a gun which is incredibly expensive (and as you might know, I have very little spending money and am constantly trying to find ways to earn money online)