9 ms·

When guns were flint locks, the amount of damage one person could do was pretty limited. When machine guns became generally available (and i'm aware $200 is no

• hintymad 6y ago
  Never owned gun, and never thought of owning one, until this year, precisely when politicians told us, on TV, that calling 911 is a privilege, and when politicians condoned publicly looting and robbery and violence and abolishing police. I never felt so much need to own many guns and train for tactical shooting to defend my family when needed.
  • AlexandrB 6y ago
    Don't be confused. Regardless of political leaning, the police are not your friends. If the US were to degrade to a dictatorship it would be the police rounding up the "undesirables".
    • hintymad 6y ago
      No, I'm not confused. Police has been of great help in my community. They are kind. They take crimes seriously. They are friendly to kids in school. I shouldn't need to mention this as it goes without saying, but whatever: they are kind and friendly to kids of all colors in my community. And dictatorship in what way? You mean that the president repeatedly asked mayors and governors to ask for national guard, as required by law, but couldn't do anything because they said no? You mean the president has no power over state or city jurisdiction so he could only yell on Twitter for opening the cities -- pathetic in a way. You mean the president has no authority to ban critical race theory so all he could do is to ban them in federal agencies, again under his full authority? You mean the president has no power over media so all he could do is to call them fake news? Or you mean that the first thing that Hitler did to gain power is to disband the police, just like many of our justice fighters have been demanding?
      • Fauntleroy 6y ago
        Are you somehow forgetting the bizarre, unmarked "police" presence Trump sent into Portland? Are DHS and Border Patrol agents with no identifying information or accountability reassuring to you?
        • hintymad 6y ago
          It depends? https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2013/07/are-unmarked-police-cars-legal.html https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2013/07/are-unmarked-polic...
        • djsumdog 6y ago
          The Federal Police were trying to keep them from burning down a federal court house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHb3xVqxcp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHb3xVqxcp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgMijMhS_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgMijMhS_U I think you need a different perspective.
  • hintymad 6y ago
    Curious about why people downvote this. Really just curious about specifics, as I fully understand that people have different opinions on gun ownership. I used to be really against gun ownership too. Is it because 1. I didn't state facts? I double checked videos 2. I took what politicians' words out of context? Again, I double checked the context. 3. I should not use a gun whatsoever? But then how do I protect myself, assuming escaping is not an option (of course I'll try to run first). 4. This is advocating violence? Then what's a better alternative?
    • hyper_reality 6y ago
      It's because this is a discussion about free speech, not gun ownership. Gun ownership was just being used as an analogy in the comment you were replying to. They'll also downvote this comment, because it asks why people voted a certain way, which is against HN guidelines.
      • hintymad 6y ago
        Thanks
    • drchopchop 6y ago
      Well, because the below is an incendiary and mostly false statement. Additionally, just because the police in your community are perfect doesn't mean real problems don't exist elsewhere. "when politicians condoned publicly looting and robbery and violence and abolishing police"
      • hintymad 6y ago
        Pelosi on people toppling statues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z8yhQMTIiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z8yhQMTIiI. For I remember, statues are not the properties of the mobs, no? AOC on looting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzlRVUJLOwo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzlRVUJLOwo Seattle council member on looting of stores: "Colleagues, I hope we’re all saying we understand why that destruction happened and we understand why people are upset", and "I don't want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told looting doesn't solve anything." Minneapolis council woman supports "dismantle" police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idw83kGmwzw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idw83kGmwzw And didn't Don Lemon, the warrior of our justice warriors publicly called democrats to stop rioting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp7oPgIwpZ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp7oPgIwpZ8? To be fair, being silent does not mean supporting rioting. I guess that the Portland government letting "protesters" destruct federal court building for 5 months is not condoning either. But hey, it is the righteous people who told us "silence is violence, not me. > because the police in your community are perfect doesn't mean real problems don't exist elsewhere. Of course not. But following the same logic, we should "abolish" or "dismantle" police for a few bad apples?
  • tootie 6y ago
    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm Wear your mask, wear your seatbelt, get exercise and don't do drugs.
  • Loughla 6y ago
    If you genuinely believed the police are there to protect you, and not to ensure the status quo is enforced and continues, you are naive, or you are not part of a marginalized group. That is not meant to be an overly hateful statement. Police (and other law-enforcement) are an exercise of the power of government. The former exists to ensure the latter can continue to exist. Therefore, police (and law-enforcement) exist to enact laws to preserve the status quo and whatever accepted social mores happen to be in vogue at the time via statute. Protecting you and your loved ones only occurs when your needs align with the desires of the state. If you happen to be part of a marginalized group, often, power structures dictate that the desires of the state run contrary to your needs, or, more often, the desires of the state are literally enacted to make your life more difficult. For example - Where I live, we have a saying, "No cops, no problems." This is because a) police take 45+ minutes to respond because we're very rural, b) police generally only respond by taking notes and harassing anyone they find on the scene, regardless of their role, and c) police, once they respond, are well known to run warrants on anyone around just to be able to say they've arrested someone that day (the second part of that is my conjecture, but I also can't come up with a reason they would run warrants on an innocent bystander, regardless of said bystander's past). My need of having my car not be stolen apparently does not align with the government's need to ensure my father is prosecuted for low-level drug offenses from many years ago. (to use the next word too much, I think) Therefore, police do not have my interests at heart. Please apply this lesson to any other marginalized group to see where the problems with police come from, and why I called you naive.
    • read_if_gay_ 6y ago
      It's total absolute bullshit to say all police don't care about protecting you. You might have had poor experiences, but generalizing from that is a mistake.
      • Loughla 6y ago
        Police care about protecting you just as long as your interests align with the interests of the state, is what I said. For most people, these two things align. Most. Not all. That is my point. I live in a community that the police absolutely have no interest in protecting. We are a problem to be dealt with, not a community to protect. Not everyone has that experience, I understand that. But police are, by virtue of who pulls the purse strings, an extension of the power of government. I never said all police don't care about protecting you. I said they absolutely care about protecting you, as long as your wants align with the needs of the state.
  • 8note 6y ago
    If you're only just finding out that calling 911 is a privilege, you have that privilege. What are you worried about?
  • cfmcdonald 6y ago
    Seems like an overreaction. No one has actually abolished any police force in the U.S., AFAIK. The Minneapolis city council made some noise about it, but most of them regret it and nothing has come of it. Any guns you own are statistically more likely to kill/injure your family than protect them.
    • hintymad 6y ago
      I appreciate the optimism. Usually I'd be optimistic too. I'm pessimistic in this case because I sense a culture shift. Few media, few intellectuals, and few politicians initially condemned the rioting or looting or violence. They did so only months later. Instead, CNN reporter could stand in front of a burning building, telling millions of people that it was a "mostly peaceful" protest. And where are the politicians when the business owners in Kenosha saw their life's work burnt away by mobs?
      • gsk22 6y ago
        What does that have to do with protecting your family? No one in Minneapolis or Kenosha died as a direct result of looting/civil unrest, and no one invaded any personal dwellings. In both cities, the only deaths were protesters killed by non-protesters. And from personal experience - I live in Minneapolis, and at no point during the unrest did I fear for my personal safety or my property. Well, except when the police with machine guns rolled through my city yelling and shooting "less-lethal" ammunition at anyone who dared peek out their front door.
      • nobody9999 6y ago
        >I'm pessimistic in this case because I sense a culture shift. Few media, few intellectuals, and few politicians initially condemned the rioting or looting or violence. I appreciate your point of view and anyone who didn't condemn violence should be roundly criticized. However, my experience here in NYC was much different. Not only did pretty much everyone decry the violence (a significant portion of which -- and there's plenty of video evidence too -- was instigated by police), but time and again over the two or three days that there was looting, the protestors took it upon themselves to stop the looters, because no one wanted that -- except the looters. What's more, much (not all) of the violent actions against police property were perpetrated by folks from out of town. I can't speak to Portland or Seattle or Kenosha, but here in NYC, even some of the police[0][1] stood (and knelt) with the protestors to condemn police violence and urged the protestors (to cheers, I might add) to kick the looters and other violent folks out. There's nuance there and it's sad (especially in the context of discussing social media) that those nuances are lost in social media bubbles where the loudest and most extreme are given undue exposure, if not primacy in the discussion. [0] https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/nypd-chief-of-department-terrence-monahan-1.45201889 https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/nypd-chief-of-departme... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWnzUTjGCoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWnzUTjGCoQ
• dnautics 6y ago
  What about the transition from parchment writing to the printing press?
• refurb 6y ago
  When the printing press came out it force multiplied. Same with amplified sound.