5 ms·

Socialist Rifle Association

35 points by lordleft 7y ago

spamizbad 7y ago
This organization catching on is the best chance the US has at passing comprehensive gun control.
- JorgeGT 7y ago
  The NRA did support gun control legislation after the Black Panthers started to openly carry guns, didn't they?
  - derg 7y ago
    Yep. Reagan passed it while Governor of California for instance.
    - masonic 7y ago
      ... he signed it after it passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly and the Democrat-controlled Senate, both with 2/3 majorities.
  - oxide 7y ago
    That's hilariously hypocritical. I'd bet the NRA would like it if people simply forgot about that.
    - krapp 7y ago
      The NRA is a political organization and they know their audience.
  - masonic 7y ago
    Only the Mulford Act, which was specific to open carry of loaded firearms
- partiallypro 7y ago
  Socialist in the title means immediate death of the organization from having any traction (meaning there will be no backlash.) Also EveryTown is already a very very large organization counter to the NRA. The NRA is powerful not because of its donations, it rarely ever does that...it's because a lot of people own and like guns. Until people come to grips with that, we'll never have real reform.
  - jMyles 7y ago
    > Also EveryTown is already a very very large organization. Is it? I have never once met anyone involved in it. > The NRA is powerful not because of its donations, it rarely ever does that...it's because a lot of people own and like guns. I think it's fair to say that a lot of gun-owners despise the NRA. Selecting Olly North as a figurehead is not a way to please a libertarian-leaning constituency.
    - flyingfences 7y ago
      > Is it? I have never once met anyone involved in it. "Large" in terms of astroturf funding, they mean.
    - Rebelgecko 7y ago
      >Is it? I have never once met anyone involved in it. Their website claims they have more than 6 million supporters, although I suppose that could include things like Facebook likes and change.org petition signers. I'd suspect that their funding is a bit less grassroots than the NRA's (since so much comes from Bloomberg) but I haven't really looked into it. However Everytown is drastically outspending the NRA in terms of campaign contributions, and looks on track to outspend them overall in the next year or two.
      - jMyles 7y ago
        I have met people involved in the NRA, GOA, and NAAGA just going about my routine - people at the grocery store, lyft drivers, sitting next to me on the plane, etc. If I see someone wearing a baseball cap or t-shirt of a political organization, I always ask about their involvement, and in several cases, people wearing a logo of these three organizations has turned out to be a fairly committed activist. But of the two people I have seen wearing Everytown apparel, neither were involved in any material way. I suspect that it is a tiny organization with a large budget.
- emilfihlman 7y ago
  What kind of gun control should there be?
  - panarky 7y ago
    1) Nobody can own a gun until they complete 40 hours of training in usage, safe handling, safe storage, tactics and law, and demonstrate proficiency in each area to an impartial test proctor. 2) Each weapon purchased must include a certificate of insurance that will reimburse $10,000,000 to any innocent individual harmed by that weapon. 3) No restrictions on cosmetic appearance of weapons, as long as personal firearms are incapable of firing more than 10 rounds in 20 seconds.
    - flyingfences 7y ago
      1) That's a blatant violation of the Constitution of these United States. 2) Any bolt-action rifle is capable of firing 10 rounds in 20 seconds. Any revolver is capable of firing 10 rounds in 20 seconds. A single-shot long gun is capable of firing 10 rounds in 20 seconds.
      - tlb 7y ago
        1) States today require a written proficiency exam. (At least, California does). I don’t see the argument for why any reasonable level of making sure people know how to use their guns properly is unconstitutional.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        Rebelgecko 7y ago
        Things like large license fees and mandatory expensive classes will disproportionately impact poor people and minorities. Not everyone gets a week of paid vacation so that they can take a class. Some would argue that this is by design. It actually reminds me a lot of voter ID laws (and imagine if you had to pay $400 and spend 40 hours studying your voter guide to vote in an election!). Regardless, it's not clear to me that this 40 hour class would be the best way to save lives. Accidental gun deaths have already been rapidly decreasing for decades. Assuming the classes were equally effective, you'd save an order of magnitude more people by requiring someone to take a 40 hour swimming class before setting foot in a pool.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  Yeah, that last time the US got major changes in gun laws that stuck was when the Black Panthers and some other civil rights groups started getting serious about getting guns in the hands of southern African-Americans for self defense. > [NRA President David] Keene points to an ugly truth about American history: Gun control has historically been used for racist purposes. > And the NRA’s president should know: His organization was intimately involved in this history, promoting gun control laws that were tainted with racism. See how fast law enforcement starts worrying about armed militia groups again if they start including left-wing ideology not just white supremacist/separatist credos. [0] https://newrepublic.com/article/112322/gun-control-racist https://newrepublic.com/article/112322/gun-control-racist
seph-reed 7y ago
Link seems to be down for me. Really enjoy the concept though. Anything that doesn't divide neatly down party lines is a nice change.
- johnny313 7y ago
  same for me, I went to the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Rifle_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Rifle_Association
robotron 7y ago
Thanks, this is really informative and appealing to me as an aging non-white anarcho-synd. I've been interested in owning some firearms but the conservative gun culture is a serious turnoff.
- orthecreedence 7y ago
  Yeah, it's important. Gun ownership is probably one of the biggest single-issue voter topics in the US. If the left (and I mean, the real left, not the Democrat party) gets a chunk of gun users, it could change preception of the ideas in the US. Bernie almost had this in 2016, but the idiots at the DNC decided to run "Abuela" instead.
ourmandave 7y ago
These guys are a fucking hoot. Their first point of unity. We are working class and poor people dedicated to educating our class in the safe use of firearms for personal and community self-defense as well as recreation and subsistence hunting. Quote from article on their site: Gun Myths: Australia School shooters are particularly interesting. Wealthy suburbanites living in gated communities are alienated from the struggle of the working-class and inevitably raise children who lack empathy for poor people. It is easy to gun down other people if their humanity has been reduced to labor value. Absent class consciousness, the working class are dehumanized and transformed into commodities valued only by their production. So the ludicrous idea that school mass shooters are mostly rich kids with no empathy. Jesus Christmas, even the N-R-"it's the video games!"-A wouldn't float something that stupid.
mrbonner 7y ago
This sounds like a joke in a recent Netflix original of Dave Chappelle. He said "every illegible black person should go out and register for a fire arm. This would bring the gun control to the legislation."
fc_barnes 7y ago
I'm curious why this got flagged? It's a pretty interesting snapshot of the political dynamics around the second amendment, especially with the way other groups have been dealing with them.

35 points by lordleft 7y ago

spamizbad 7y ago

This organization catching on is the best chance the US has at passing comprehensive gun control.

JorgeGT 7y ago
The NRA did support gun control legislation after the Black Panthers started to openly carry guns, didn't they?
- derg 7y ago
  Yep. Reagan passed it while Governor of California for instance.
  - masonic 7y ago
    ... he signed it after it passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly and the Democrat-controlled Senate, both with 2/3 majorities.
- oxide 7y ago
  That's hilariously hypocritical. I'd bet the NRA would like it if people simply forgot about that.
  - krapp 7y ago
    The NRA is a political organization and they know their audience.
- masonic 7y ago
  Only the Mulford Act, which was specific to open carry of loaded firearms
partiallypro 7y ago
Socialist in the title means immediate death of the organization from having any traction (meaning there will be no backlash.) Also EveryTown is already a very very large organization counter to the NRA. The NRA is powerful not because of its donations, it rarely ever does that...it's because a lot of people own and like guns. Until people come to grips with that, we'll never have real reform.
- jMyles 7y ago
  > Also EveryTown is already a very very large organization. Is it? I have never once met anyone involved in it. > The NRA is powerful not because of its donations, it rarely ever does that...it's because a lot of people own and like guns. I think it's fair to say that a lot of gun-owners despise the NRA. Selecting Olly North as a figurehead is not a way to please a libertarian-leaning constituency.
  - flyingfences 7y ago
    > Is it? I have never once met anyone involved in it. "Large" in terms of astroturf funding, they mean.
  - Rebelgecko 7y ago
    >Is it? I have never once met anyone involved in it. Their website claims they have more than 6 million supporters, although I suppose that could include things like Facebook likes and change.org petition signers. I'd suspect that their funding is a bit less grassroots than the NRA's (since so much comes from Bloomberg) but I haven't really looked into it. However Everytown is drastically outspending the NRA in terms of campaign contributions, and looks on track to outspend them overall in the next year or two.
    - jMyles 7y ago
      I have met people involved in the NRA, GOA, and NAAGA just going about my routine - people at the grocery store, lyft drivers, sitting next to me on the plane, etc. If I see someone wearing a baseball cap or t-shirt of a political organization, I always ask about their involvement, and in several cases, people wearing a logo of these three organizations has turned out to be a fairly committed activist. But of the two people I have seen wearing Everytown apparel, neither were involved in any material way. I suspect that it is a tiny organization with a large budget.
emilfihlman 7y ago
What kind of gun control should there be?
- panarky 7y ago
  1) Nobody can own a gun until they complete 40 hours of training in usage, safe handling, safe storage, tactics and law, and demonstrate proficiency in each area to an impartial test proctor. 2) Each weapon purchased must include a certificate of insurance that will reimburse $10,000,000 to any innocent individual harmed by that weapon. 3) No restrictions on cosmetic appearance of weapons, as long as personal firearms are incapable of firing more than 10 rounds in 20 seconds.
  - flyingfences 7y ago
    1) That's a blatant violation of the Constitution of these United States. 2) Any bolt-action rifle is capable of firing 10 rounds in 20 seconds. Any revolver is capable of firing 10 rounds in 20 seconds. A single-shot long gun is capable of firing 10 rounds in 20 seconds.
    - tlb 7y ago
      1) States today require a written proficiency exam. (At least, California does). I don’t see the argument for why any reasonable level of making sure people know how to use their guns properly is unconstitutional.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - Rebelgecko 7y ago
        Things like large license fees and mandatory expensive classes will disproportionately impact poor people and minorities. Not everyone gets a week of paid vacation so that they can take a class. Some would argue that this is by design. It actually reminds me a lot of voter ID laws (and imagine if you had to pay $400 and spend 40 hours studying your voter guide to vote in an election!). Regardless, it's not clear to me that this 40 hour class would be the best way to save lives. Accidental gun deaths have already been rapidly decreasing for decades. Assuming the classes were equally effective, you'd save an order of magnitude more people by requiring someone to take a 40 hour swimming class before setting foot in a pool.
rtkwe 7y ago
Yeah, that last time the US got major changes in gun laws that stuck was when the Black Panthers and some other civil rights groups started getting serious about getting guns in the hands of southern African-Americans for self defense. > [NRA President David] Keene points to an ugly truth about American history: Gun control has historically been used for racist purposes. > And the NRA’s president should know: His organization was intimately involved in this history, promoting gun control laws that were tainted with racism. See how fast law enforcement starts worrying about armed militia groups again if they start including left-wing ideology not just white supremacist/separatist credos. [0] https://newrepublic.com/article/112322/gun-control-racist https://newrepublic.com/article/112322/gun-control-racist

seph-reed 7y ago

Link seems to be down for me. Really enjoy the concept though. Anything that doesn't divide neatly down party lines is a nice change.

johnny313 7y ago
same for me, I went to the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Rifle_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Rifle_Association

robotron 7y ago

Thanks, this is really informative and appealing to me as an aging non-white anarcho-synd. I've been interested in owning some firearms but the conservative gun culture is a serious turnoff.

orthecreedence 7y ago
Yeah, it's important. Gun ownership is probably one of the biggest single-issue voter topics in the US. If the left (and I mean, the real left, not the Democrat party) gets a chunk of gun users, it could change preception of the ideas in the US. Bernie almost had this in 2016, but the idiots at the DNC decided to run "Abuela" instead.

ourmandave 7y ago

These guys are a fucking hoot. Their first point of unity. We are working class and poor people dedicated to educating our class in the safe use of firearms for personal and community self-defense as well as recreation and subsistence hunting. Quote from article on their site: Gun Myths: Australia School shooters are particularly interesting. Wealthy suburbanites living in gated communities are alienated from the struggle of the working-class and inevitably raise children who lack empathy for poor people. It is easy to gun down other people if their humanity has been reduced to labor value. Absent class consciousness, the working class are dehumanized and transformed into commodities valued only by their production. So the ludicrous idea that school mass shooters are mostly rich kids with no empathy. Jesus Christmas, even the N-R-"it's the video games!"-A wouldn't float something that stupid.

mrbonner 7y ago

This sounds like a joke in a recent Netflix original of Dave Chappelle. He said "every illegible black person should go out and register for a fire arm. This would bring the gun control to the legislation."

fc_barnes 7y ago

I'm curious why this got flagged? It's a pretty interesting snapshot of the political dynamics around the second amendment, especially with the way other groups have been dealing with them.