I truly and genuinely hate to post this

[gay texan]

I hate firearm violence with every fiber of my being.

These are the times we live in. For my LGBTQ family seek out your local Pink Pistols or Flaming Sword chapter.

I'm one to seek peace by all means, but hate has no reasoning. I've had to buy a handgun. I really, honestly, did not want to go down this road. I absolutely hate the fact that I know have to carry something capable of ending a human life. I fucking hate the responsibility something like this carries.

I weep for the fact that hate speech is left unchecked in this fucking nation.....

I fucking hate this, but that's what its come to.

[RKP5637]

1. You're not alone!!! I'm so fed up with it all. n/t

[Skittles]

2. gun humpers have won

yup

[gay texan]

4. My Dad is a Vietnam veteran

He saw a lot of blood and guts.

I know what hell bullet can bring. I've held out for 30 years thinking I wouldn't have needed one.

When a drag show is disrupted by a powere outage, it only gets worse from here.

I've handled fire arms all my life. One hell of a shot if I may brag. I never knew I'd have to defend my BF and I's lives in public

[vlyons]

3. Go to a pistol range and learn how to use your gun properly

Store it safely at home

[gay texan]

5. I know the drill

I suppose I'm lamenting about the fact that I have to carry a firearm

[gay texan]

6. I own a number of rifles for wildlife defense

I honestly thought it would never come to this point.

[kwijybo]

23. Consider a shotgun for home defense

Close up, even bird shot is deadly. And the sound of a pump shotgun, in the dark, will scare anyone.

[magicarpet]

7. Texas must be a "keep hyper-alert zone" to live in.

Gun loving, Christian zealots, and red neck toxic masculinity make for a human goulash that seems about to boil over and likely burst into flames.

Best to you, your family, and loved ones - Be Well - Stay Safe - Keep Alert.

[multigraincracker]

8. I try to never go anywhere

I think I might need one. Nothing good happens after dark.
Take.care.

[Shellback Squid]

10. Take classes for your own safety and sake

[soldierant]

11. Gay Tesan says they have

handled firearms all their life, and I assume some if not all of that was with coaching from their Dad, a VietNam veteran.

Generally people who are educated have a good feel for when that education needs refreshing.

Now, if it were me, I would definitely have t get training/education.

[AverageOldGuy]

12. You need to read this book . . . it's available from Amazon

This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

Visiting Martin Luther King Jr. at the peak of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. "Just for self defense," King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend's Montgomery, Alabama home as "an arsenal."

Like King, many ostensibly "nonviolent" civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to selfprotection -- yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed, civil rights scholar Charles E. Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s. In the Deep South, blacks often safeguarded themselves and their loved ones from white supremacist violence by bearing -- and, when necessary, using -- firearms. In much the same way, Cobb shows, nonviolent civil rights workers received critical support from black gun owners in the regions where they worked. Whether patrolling their neighborhoods, garrisoning their homes, or firing back at attackers, these courageous men and women and the weapons they carried were crucial to the movement's success.

Giving voice to the World War II veterans, rural activists, volunteer security guards, and self-defense groups who took up arms to defend their lives and liberties, This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed lays bare the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the Second Amendment. Drawing on his firsthand experiences in the civil rights movement and interviews with fellow participants, Cobb provides a controversial examination of the crucial place of firearms in the fight for American freedom.

[FailureToCommunicate]

13. Sorry too that it's come to this. Remember, though,

that the guy in that club subdued the shooter without using having a gun. Things sometimes go FUBAR no matter the prep or good intentions. Best to be prepared as possible, whatever that means to each of us.

[Happy Hoosier]

14. If you think you need one...

Pick one that fits your hand well. Learn to use it. Use enough that you are not afraid of it, but always respect its destructive power. Practice with it enough that things like proper trigger discipline, and proper carriage are automatic. Likewise if it has a safety. I‘m sorry we live in such a world that you feel the need to carry to protect yourself from monsters. I wish you well.

[BMW2020RT]

15. That feeling will dissipate. I bought my first revolver about 10 years ago.

I also keep a modest supply of ammunition with it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. No, I will never get a gun.

If guns really made us safer, or made people more polite to each other, then wouldn't the gun murders have declined in recent years? But they haven't. Having a gun simply increases the probability that someone in your home will die from that gun.

I'm so enraged at every story of a toddler getting a gun and shooting another family member. Or a parent shooting a child coming home late at night.

Oh, and I really, really wish the newspapers and TV would publish actual photos of those who've died from guns. Especially the children. Most of us, myself included, really have no idea the damage bullets do. We all need to see it.

[FreeState]

27. +1

[orleans]

18. i'm sorry. sorry things have gotten so fucking bad

please be careful

i hope you NEVER need to use that thing.

[cate94]

19. My wife has two guns

Something I’ve always hated. After nearly 30 yrs. A few weeks ago, she started looking for a way to dispose of them..I asked her not to get rid of them. I never thought I’d want to have guns around, now I want to learn how to use them. Ugh.

[Warpy]

20. Hate speech should be out there so we know who the assholes are

but what I find intolerable is how social media have given that hate speech a megaphone. That's what needs to be stopped.

People can sat whatever stupid, hateful or just plain unpopular thing they want. What they should be deprived of is any sort of an authoritative appearing platform on which to say it. If such platforms refuse to self moderate out of mistaken libertarian principles, they need to be shut down. Normalizing and amplifying hate speech is killing this country.

Haters are always going to be out there and they're always going to be able to find a few people who agree with them, but they'll be all too aware they're in the minority once their megaphones are gone.

I'm sorry you feel a need to protect yourself with a gun and I'm not going to second guess that.

I just wish the FCC would get off its dead ass and act.

[AllaN01Bear]

21. i have always felt that all minority groups need to learn self defence and so on.

[Tetrachloride]

22. I have 2 kinds of clothes: tourist clothes and less than tourist

i usually wear the dull “less than tourist “. I get mistaken for a native more often.

My hairstyle has helped me fit in. Usually a clean cut.

I also walk in a time has no meaning style. Low stress for everyone.

[lambchopp59]

24. Oh Ghod

Me and a...
Gun. *cough*
Remember the scene in The Birdcage when Nathan Lane broke his slice of toast trying to "smear" mustard?
Yeah. That's me when a damn firearm kicks in my hand.
I can barely stand the moment the roll of biscuits pops open although I haven't required CPR yet.
Maybe after a year or so of fear extinction therapy I could get there.

[marble falls]

25. I live in Texas and I know this in my heart as a vet, ex-NRA member, former hunter ...

... this is exactly why I no longer own firearms, especially a handgun: I would use it.

[Runningdawg]

26. I am a BiF in OK, I share your sentiment.

While I have always owned a gun, usually several and go to the range frequently, for me the line is concealed or open carry. I'm not ready to carry everyday, everywhere. However, as I age and other skills decline, I know if I live long enough, the day will come.

[LostOne4Ever]

28. I worry that getting a firearm would feed into a system

That is amassing a huge arsenal among the general public with the aim of creating a moral mass panic against a minority who will be hated and outgunned.

But I might be paranoid after seeing too many memes where a conservative is pointing a gun at the screen threatening violence over someone just needing to pee.