Elephants and Jackasses...

I’ve had to show ID before when I was younger to make sure I was old enough or whatever. But in general, the only time I’ve ever been limited in buying ammo was when there was that big shortage a few years ago.

In Texas, there is literally nothing you can’t do short of being a convicted felon and getting to buy a gun.

Compounding all that with our new open carry laws, it just feels like it’s too easy to get whatever you want here.

 

(Grumbles in non-violent convicted felon)

 

There kind of already is if you buy ammunition with a credit card. Some other issues is buying ammo in bulk (like anything) is usually significantly cheaper and that's why most buy large amounts. When I was shooting trap & skeet regularly, I was buying at least a case a month. Nobody's even mentioned reloading yet.

Also, while the primers and powder have a shelf life, it's measured in decades if the ammo is kept in a cool dry place. I have ammo that I brought home after my dad passed away that dad likely bought in the 60's.

 

muzzle loaders and “replica” revolvers which you load with the ball and wad thing are your friend

 

Point I saw earlier: if we armed teachers, how many of them would commit suicide? We know that availability of a firearm increases the likelihood of a completed suicide, and the teachers who have to deal with your rotten crotch-fruit are on the border of offing themselves most of the time as it is. I have to imagine you'd lose a measurable number of them if you forced guns into their hands.

 

you think they don’t have firearms at home?

Around here, public schools have an armed officer on campus (though we saw how well that worked 2 hours west of us). When I think of arming teachers, I think of only allowing admin with their CCL to carry their personal CCWs with them.

 

Yes, there are some teachers/admins that already own guns who would just start carrying at school. But that number isn't anywhere near high enough to accomplish what these "we need to arm the teachers!" folks want to accomplish.

 

people who want to arm others who are not otherwise intimately familiar with and comfortable around firearms, are batshit insane.

There’s an argument to be made for allowing teachers, who already have their CCL, to carry in the classroom. I’m not sure I agree with it, but I could be convinced, especially for places like college campuses. There is absolutely fucking zero sense behind asking a teacher, who does not already own a firearm, to purchase, familiarize themselves and train with said firearm to the point of being safely proficient, and then carry said firearm in a chaotic environment, on top of their other duties and without a MAJOR bump in training and pay. Simply not logistically feasible.

But if you already carry as part of your daily routine, then yeah sure, why not also allow them to carry in school offices is my thinking. I would personally draw the line at the classrooms, but that’s just me.

 

Is anybody making the argument that we need to “force guns into their hands?” Or are they saying that teachers who want to do so and take the appropriate training and what not, should be able to?

 

A childhood buddy of mine, we grew up hunting and shooting together, did a stint in the military. After his military stint, he did the required 2 years in the National Guard, where he was called upon to guard New Orleans after Katrina. He said he was more frightened of his own teammates than anything New Orleans could throw at him. To a man, the only time any of them had ever handled a firearm was in basic training, many years previous. And here they were patrolling a disaster area with live rounds in the chute.

 

I’d trust about 90% of the people I’ve shot with to handle themselves with a firearm under duress (I’ve stopped shooting with a few). I cannot say the same about some of the cops I know who shoot once or twice a year to qualify and that’s it.

I love it when people say “as a former [whatever military branch or LEO], I believe…” when making a point, as if that confers some special power or authority upon them. Unless they were involved in some bad shit, or did range time outside of the min required to pass the test, they’re no more or less qualified than anyone else.

give me a regular hunter and shooting buddy to have my back absolutely any day

 

One thing that occurs to me, after reading a Reddit post by someone claiming to be a 14-year old, whose grown up with active shooter trainings after Sandy Hook is how angry and frustrated young people are.

I mean, my cohort had Columbine when we started school, 9/11 in the middle of it, Katrina in college, and the Great Recession at the end of it. The weird part was how absent politics was from our lives compared to now. In the midst of all that, I had a range of emotions, from the irritation at the absurdity that Columbine was caused by video games and movies, to the frustration at the response to 9/11, and I dunno if there are a lot of George Bush fans these days (my suspicion is there are not). I just recall politics being a distant thing in our lives. It was a bunch of staid old people being fairly boring about some issues, and man, how I miss that.

Now, it's a reality tv show that is top of the charts. I can't see how anyone feels distant from politics, and I feel the young folks now have quite a lot to be angry about.

I will never vote Republican again, after some of the things that have occurred in my lifetime that contradict my values and beliefs. I can't imagine the Grand Ol' Party has a ton of optimism about how they'll get votes in 2044, given how they are handling some of these issues now.

I read a statistic that suggested it was more dangerous to be a child in public school than a cop on America's streets. Believable? Unfortunately, yes. Verifiable....less so.

I keep thinking that eventually, the curtain keeps slowly being pulled back on some of these issues, like guns. The statistics get easier to verify. The science becomes more defensible. The proponents become more desperate, their defenses more illogical, and the cries of those who've buried loved ones, especially children become harder and harder to ignore. You might have a few people who (stupidly) believe Sandy Hook was staged, but Alex Jones' very public lawsuit means that tactic won't be used again. So, fewer people are subjected to lies, misinformation and misdirection with this one.

And this 14 year old who asks "what about my right to not fucking die?" will have a very different take on how to address this issue. It's not a gridlock between the have guns vs. don't have them. It's a wildly different view of society, one that takes sufficient care of people so they are not tempted to commit murder to express their discontent. It's a person who views things citizens in Western Europe have enjoyed for decades, and simply doesn't accept the excuse that we can't have them here, when we are so boastful about the things we have.

Change is coming. I just hate that so many had to die to inspire us to get off our collective asses.

 

absolutely gotta raise the age limit. Yes, I get that whole “only law abiding citizens follow the law” argument, but all these mass murderers were also law abiding citizens until they weren’t. Plus raising the age limit to even 21 would have stopped many of these shootings.

“Common sense gun reforms” gets thrown around a lot, and what’s common sense to one person is way overly or under restrictive to another. I think raising the age limit, and no private sales/only through FFL are two things that make complete sense

 

This is not an argument against raising the min age for purchasing guns, but at what point do we just raise the age of becoming an adult? In CA a 20-year-old can't buy a handgun or long gun, alcohol, tobacco, legal weed, hit the casino, almost impossible to rent a car and probably a slew of other things I can't recall.

IMO, if you're deemed sound of mind to sign up for the military and put your life on the line for your country, that age should be considered of sound mind to buy a gun or a beer. Imagine joining the armed forces, doing a tour, coming home and you can't buy a pack of smokes?

Somewhat ironically, people are saying we need to or have raised the age for certain items that 18 y/o's aren't mentally ready for but they also want to lower the voting age to 16.

 

the “adult” part is a largely just a legal distinction, for things such as criminal trials, giving consent, making decisions without parental approval etc. I might support raising the age for being a legal adult, to 21 if anything. Though I would not support raising the age limit to vote, and might even support lowering it given how many of these political decisions impact future generations

 

Then voting should also have a strict cutoff age, I think. Maybe 65.