I’m a progressive living in a major urban area, safe affluent neighborhood. I grew up in the South, and have a lot of experience hunting deer and birds. It’s been years since I’ve hunted, and my long guns are currently in a family safe several states away. I’ve fired my dad’s Glock a few times, and was surprisingly good at it. My attempts to hit a target with his .38 Special were laughable.
Due to everything that is happening over the past year (and especially the past few months), I’ve been seriously considering getting a handgun. Talking about why and for what purpose is maybe beyond the scope of this post. What I’m really interested in is how others on this sub have approached family members who are opposed to firearms in the home.
My spouse was raised in a family that was very anti-firearm. She is rightly concerned with the dangers of having one in the house–safe or no safe. She is adamantly opposed to the idea. We have some minor, but well-treated mental health issues in the nuclear family (like depression)–and we’re both aware that these issues magnify the dangers. In a sense, I’m aware that having a firearm in the house increases the danger to us, while making me only feel safer. That being said, I think it’s time to start having discussions, which will hopefully lead to the training necessary to safely own a handgun.
So, how have you all handled approaching discussions with family members?
— Sufficient_Collar290 (not pictured above) at Reddit in How to talk to my family about purchasing a gun for the home
progressive…you mean ya left wing and vote democrat.
Anyway…haven’t you heard? According to ‘progressive’ democrats if you own a gun you will automatically want to commit suicide or go on a rampage and kill others indiscriminately and become a white supremacist MAG member.
Shame on you progressive.
Option A: You’re an adult. Stop worrying about what others think.
Option B: Embrace TDS and say it’s to fight against the fascists coming for your androgynous child-size weeb body pillow.
@Shire I think his whole thing is full blown TDS prepping to take on the fascist death squads.
Due to everything that is happening over the past year (and especially the past few months)
What happened? Dems aren’t in charge, so MAGAs are going to put tran_z, non-white people, and women seeking abortions into concentration camps. I know that seems like an exaggeration for comedic effect. Unfortunately, it isn’t. That’s what the lefties have been saying for months. They’re even saying it in this red_it conversation.
One reply: I’m tran_z, both my partners are tran_z…As things heated up moving into the election the eliminationist rhetoric from the right amped up too. I think its important to discuss the outcomes of not being armed and be firm in your position.
Next reply: like, seriously. Use historical examples and ask her what can we do if MAGA death squads are moving through the neighborhood. Ultimately no outcome is good other than resistance.
OP reply: I do appreciate your take on this…
Dude, when I first read this I thought it was satire. Then I read some of the other threads. These people actually think real Notsees are after them. I don’t normally read leftist material. These people truly live in an alternative universe.
I have family like this. They live in a leftist neighborhood in a leftist town in a leftist state and consume leftist media with their leftist friends all day.
The absolute and total disconnect from reality is amazing. It used to be just hyperbolic exaggerating and “what ifs” but now are 100% convinced that skinheads are in grade school with their kids and that homosexuals are being disappeared in their leftist neighborhood in their leftist town in their leftist state.
Sometimes I feel bad for their kids.
Many on the right like to laugh about how looney the left has become don’t know the true extent of it and many on the left cannot see it for themselves because they are surrounded by people just like them and actively avoid exposing themselves to anything that isn’t purely leftist.
A large chunk of them commenting online really do think that. I occasionally check comments over at Daily Kos just to see what they’re thinking. It’s sad how far gone they are.
My parents (big dems) would laugh at that, but seem to believe every other lie. They consume the propaganda every day. (The major TV networks, CNN, and even a paper sub to the NYT.) If I want to know what current narrative is being pushed, all I have to do is go over there and see what they’re upset about. They’re programmed to think the truth is a lie, probably pushed by Fox News. It’s sad.
Look at the recent stories of very intelligent people just discovering the truth. Elon said he voted for Dems, including Biden in 2020, because Dems were the nice party. Another billionaire tech guy stopped supporting Dems because he just discovered the truth about the “very fine people” (Nazis) lie a few months ago! That lie began in 2017!! And people are just discovering the truth seven years later?! They have been trained to believe everything that doesn’t match the narrative is a lie. This is in the age of easily accessible information. That’s why they freaked out over losing twitter. That’s why they hate Elon.
Darn it. Comment moderated.
Can a progressive really be helped until they make some mental changes that are contrary to progressive ideology?
Can you… Yes.
Should you… That’s a completely different question.
Many/most people who adamantly oppose keeping a firearm in the home have arrived at that position based on emotion. In my experience it is almost impossible to persuade someone to abandon an emotional position.
The only realistic ability you might have to change a person’s emotional position: it will take a long time (potentially years) and a LOT of cajoling.
“I’m a progressive…”
That’s your main problem.
Stop seeking permission and validation from others for exercising your constitutional right. Be a grown up, be responsible.
Oh *whine whine whine* – just stop it.
I just read the linked Reddit thread. Lots of…umm…interesting fodder there. Here’s the opening line of one of the comments:
“I’m trans, both my partners are trans.”
(Let that sink in for a moment)
I see you skipped my comment 😉
Did your comment go to moderation? You used a couple of naughty words. I haven’t tested them here since there isn’t an edit function.
Something happened a couple of weeks ago. I was always modded here and on TTAG, so I stopped using my username and email for a few months. When I resumed, I haven’t experienced a single mod since. Odd.
I haven’t been able to post on TTAG for about a month now. It doesn’t even go to MOD. I’ve tried to contact TTAG about it and have been ghosted so I no longer try. It happened before and they said my posts were going to spam. Obviously that is a lie otherwise the problem would be fixed by now.
Their system might have flagged your IP for some reason. Clear your cache and try using a different IP.
“Here’s the opening line of one of the comments:
“I’m trans, both my partners are trans.”
(Let that sink in for a moment)”
I’m a bit jealous, I *wish* I could afford (and had the fortitude) to support more than one mate.
Think about it for awhile… 😉
We get to say Reddit and trans here without moderation? I’m testing this out…
No moderation on those! Cool! I was moderated above, probably because I had the comment box open for too long. I’ve noticed that tends to happen. I’m usually doing other things, so it can take awhile to finish a comment.
should probably seek treatment for the mental illness before purchase.
great! whatever it takes to get people to wake up and finally understand the purpose of the 2nd amendment: protection against gov tyrants
Here are a couple of approaches I take:
1 – I ask them what they will do if they are confronted by evil (let’s say the evil is in the form of a person who is intent on doing deadly harm to you or your loved ones). The way I imagine it, anyone confronted by evil has 3 choices:
a) submit
b) negotiate
c) resist
If they choose to submit I remind them that, in many instances, evil will do you harm even after you have submitted (examples abound of people being injured or killed after complying with the demands made of them).
If they choose to negotiate I remind them that evil doesn’t begin their evil acts with the intent to enter into negotiations, it simply wants what it wants; in other words, negotiation (unless it is for the purpose of buying time/distance/distraction)is unlikely to benefit you.
If they choose to resist I ask them what tools they will use to resist with: words, kind acts, threatening postures, kinetic force etc.). Out of all these choices kinetic force has the highest likelihood of successfully stopping the evil until you are no longer endangered.
If they say they’ll run away, ask them if that will work while in the proximity of evil (gun pointed at you, physically stronger opponent, motivated bad person prepared to take immediate action against you, or if you would run if it meant leaving a loved one behind)
2 – I would ask them if they have a right to protect or defend themselves against those who wish them harm. If they say no, tell them good luck with that, and disengage immediately. If they say yes, then have them go through the loop of reasoning I’ve laid out above. If they say they have a right to protect or defend themselves to the point of resistance against evil then have them run through their list of options on how they would do so.
Stay calm, curious and concerned about their well-being. It’s not easy getting people to shift their beliefs. The cultural conditioning is very strongly in favor of them maintaining their mental inertia. And bear in mind that the conversation you have today may have a beneficial effect some time in the future. Don’t give up hope, but don’t engage with them if they become frightened, confused, aggressive with you.
That reddit thread…these people are insane. The actually believe there will be these massive romaing bands of MAGA groups roaming neighborhoods killing trans or rounding up trans and liberals and non-white people and women seeking abortions to put them into concentration camps.
Look, if that were a real thing there was nothing to really stop this imaginary mass of imaginary MAGA from hunting them down before Trump was elected or now. I mean, in reality if there were enough people who wanted to do it there was nothing that could stop them from doing it with selected ‘strikes’ to take out some trans or liberals or non-white people or women seeking abortions. Its not like the trans and liberals and non-white people and ‘progressives’ and abortionist kept it hidden so they could not be identified, they literally as a movement and individually ‘screamed’ out literally and figuratively ‘LOOK AT US, HERE WE ARE, YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!” in the last four years, went on TV with it, massed together in protests, flaunted it in public view, with their actions and words so it would have been easy for roaming MAGA groups to strike like they imagine because they self-identified not only in very public displays but all of them in their personal lives and they made their views known.
But it didn’t happen now did it. There were no imaginary masses of imaginary MAGA’s out hunting them or doing anything to them.
On the other hand, the trans and liberals and pro-life people banded together in their ‘special interest groups’. They used tax dollars, and ‘donations’ and funding from billionaires, to wage a social and law-fare war against anyone that wasn’t them, a war on our children to indoctrinate them, a war on society and institutions and businesses to change them into their personal ‘utopias’, a war of ‘our-way’ to remove or infringe constitutional rights they didn’t like, and rammed down our throats their form of mar- ist socia -lism, backed and emboldened by a dementia ridden Biden who called himself ‘president’ and a cackling idiot Harris more incompetent than Biden, and a war on public opinion via their corrupted and colluding media, and use of actual violence and arms against innocent people (i.e. ANTIFA, BLM riots, and using a ‘frankenstien monster’ pseudo-science justification violence’ to convert healthy child bodies to an opposite gender by drugs and sterilization (i.e. puberty blockers) and surgery, and literally aborted viable living babies and sold them off for experimentation and wanted to literally murder children at the moment of birth to call it an ‘abortion’, and harbored violent killers and child rapists while crying they are ‘immigrants needing protection’ while those ‘immigrants’ murdered and raped our citizens. You called your selves, overall, ‘progressives’ trying to distance your image from that violence and hate and sick twisted mental illness and death cult you really are. And now you ‘progessives’ call for violence, again, just like you have been doing all this time, to battle MAGA because their imaginations and delusions have reached the stage where their imaginary boogyman is tangible to you because you are no longer able to wage these wars and this violence against the rest of society to transform it it into what they want.
Yes, the ‘progressive’ left wing death cult of violence has been waging all this war for a long time. Did MAGA get pissed off? Yes. Did MAGA push back in protest and discourse and courts? Do some people get pissed of and lash out verbally? Yes. But did MAGA go out in these roving bands and hunt them down like they claim is going to happen? No. It could have happened, but didn’t and hasn’t and the reason is because these imaginary MAGA groups you imagine is coming to kill you and put you in camps does not exist. And as for what you call MAGA politically we are not like you ‘progressive’ left wingers – we are not the sick twisted violent people you are – we are sane people and not the mentally ill delusional mess you call ‘progressive’.
Correction for: “to battle MAGA because their imaginations and…”
Should have been …
,,,”to battle MAGA because in the ‘progressives’ imaginations and…”
Correction for: “On the other hand, the trans and liberals and pro-life people banded together in their ‘special interest groups’”
Should have been…
On the other hand, the trans and liberals and pro-life people and BLM and ANTIFA banded together in their ‘special interest groups’…
@.40 Check my above reply to 70 U Code, if it gets moderated. I’m sure you’ve heard Yuri Bezmenonov describe how this works. What’s really crazy is that his very accurate warning was four decades ago! It must be too scary for some people to have their worldview turned upside down. Lies are more comforting for them than hearing the truth.
Dude,
“It must be too scary for some people to have their worldview turned upside down. Lies are more comforting for them than hearing the truth.”
That is 1000% correct. When a person is forced to recognize that a deeply held belief is wrong and destructive, it is just as painful as being in a car crash.
And that last statement is NOT hyperbole. Researchers actually managed to image (using MRI technology) multiple individual’s brains while confronting them is said manner and their pain centers in their brains lit up like Christmas trees–in virtually the same fashion as suffering intense and widespread physical pain.
Thus, it really is that painful and difficult for someone to reject one of their deeply held beliefs.
The middle sentence in the middle paragraph should be:
“… while confronting them IN said manner …”
This is it Boys! This is WAR! Leftwing Activist Declares Civil War on MAGA and it is HILARIOUS.
h ttps://twitchy.com/chad-felix-greene/2025/02/15/this-is-it-boys-this-is-war-leftwing-activist-declares-civil-war-on-maga-and-it-is-hilarious-n2408384
Progressive Liberals with guns are the ones climbing up on roofs, camping outside of golf courses, and attending Republican softball practice.
Paul,
Reminder: Progressive Liberals are also the ones walking up to Republican candidates at their campaign tables in public locations and punching them viciously in the face/head.