In my area, it is not “racially laden”. It is purely about how we talk to the kids about storing food and other measures that have always made sense up here in the mountains. Some people certainly do think about city people roaming the countryside raiding farms after some imaginary apocalypse, but not because of any particular race. If city people ever did manage to get up here, it would probably be crystal-worshiping New Age Whites from Santa Fe.
And “thug” is an Indian term. That is appropriation, I guess. Although Tupac seemed to like the association.
I love cake.
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And WMD threads into yellowcake threads?
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Did you make that? It looks superb. Bring me a piece.
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If you’re still hungry, there’s more cake here!
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I have a huge number of guns. My Grandfather collected guns, My Dad collected guns, I have been collecting guns since we came to the US. Not cheap, random modern guns, but guns owned by historical figures, impossibly intricate antique guns, Wonderfully engraved sporting rifles. Most of them are very rarely fired. I also have swords. Bunches of them. Some date to the 16th century.
But I cannot see how my having so many guns makes me more dangerous or the world less safe. If you were raised with guns the way I was, there is not the emotional response that they might generate in people who have not been around them as much. You might have a strong reaction to seeing a room full of guns, someone from Yemen might react to to seeing the girls on a beach in France.
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Socal half-jap high five!
When you’re walking around with the your japanese friends and are the only one with a non-japanese last name.
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This comparison feels particularly apt, as many Europeans still seem to (mistakenly) think that every other U.S. citizen owns a gun, much like someone from Yemen might (mistakenly) think that women from the U.S. will go to bed with you faster than a panhandler accepting a euro.
I can’t think of many here on BB who would quibble with owning several historic or otherwise ‘heirloom’ firearms. It’s those gun owners with an unnerving number of modern firearms that tend to get the brunt of the collective criticism on these sort of threads. And you’re right in that for most of us, myself included, such collecting is completely foreign.
The man I mentioned in my first post, nice as he is, has no apparent reason for owning a semi. That there isn’t already a separate and more stringent licensure process for owning such firearms in the U.S. baffles me.
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Can I immigrate?
I own five quadcopters…
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Neither of my parents are ethnic Japanese, although we moved there shortly after I was born. My Dad is German, but a speaker of Thai. Mom is American, but her father spent much of his life in China. And she learned to cook in Japan. It is a weird combination, which I have also inflicted on my children. We lived in a rural fishing village when I was little. Somewhere I have a picture of a stereotypical beach scene, boats pulled up on the sand, a bunch of kids in traditional dress pulling a big net with glass floats up on the beach, and there I am, fantastically pale, right in the middle. I think it was something related to school, but I don’t remember. My daughter plans to go straight back to Japan as soon as she leaves college.
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Do you mean because the guns are non-functioning museum pieces with plugged barrels and no ammo? Like theatre props?
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I am not sure your use of the word semi is the same as mine. My first gun was a semiauto Browning .22, which we actually bought when we were in Japan, and I was nine. Of course I could only look at it through the glass of the gun cabinet at that age, unless we went to the range. I still own that rifle. I work on a lot of antique guns, so that puts me in contact with a wide variety of collectors. Generally, they are pretty secretive about their hobby, if only because they worry about burglary. I know one man in particular, who has a bunch of very expensive guns, all from WW1 and WW2, including legal full automatics. He owns no ammunition, and never shoots. But many of the people I deal with have collections that could rival some museums. None of the big collectors I know have particularly right-wing political views, as far as I can determine. One gentleman has a huge basement full of Nazi firearms, flags, and other items, but is an observant Jew. So it is hard for me to accept all the stereotypes as accurate.
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No, I do not own non functioning guns. Collectors in Places like England have deactivated guns, and I do sometimes work on those for other people, to get the finish and patina correct on the dummy parts. But my personal guns are all functional, although some of them use terribly obscure ammo. They are safe, because they are in a reinforced steel vault with a 3000 pound door. And I keep the ammo in a safe in another building on the property.
An example of a museum piece is a Lithgow rifle and bayonet, documented to the battle of Galipoli, with the canvas sling still bearing bloody handprints from the Australian soldier who was wounded while using it. It is functional, but is never touched. I have a couple of rifles that were commissioned for the 1938 German expedition to Tibet, and used to bring animal specimens for German museums. That sort of thing.
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Only if you include suicides, which is purposeful, conscious action and a completely different issue than gun crime or accidents.
I am not ignoring the risks. I have quantified that risk repeatedly.
Trying to crack down further on ownership is going to affect one set of people primarily - the ones already not hurting people.
Which they now have anti-knife campaigns in Britain. But again, Britain never had the murder rate the US had. And while there is a gradual reduction like the US and Australia, in Britain there wasn’t a sudden decrease in homicides after their new legislation. There was actually a large spike 2 years afterwards, but it is down over all.
Do you have a hobby? Do you have way more things related to that hobby than one person should ever need? It is the same thing.
I know people who own super expensive race bikes, 3 cars in various degrees of working order, more video games than they could physically play and beat within a life time, more comics than they could possibly read.
That is all it is. If you don’t fish a lot, you might wonder why you need more then one fishing pole. But if you are like my dad he has a dozen or so with different degrees of flexibility and sensitivity and some work for different style of fishing better for different kinds of fish.
Fun fact, he can only effectively use one at a time. So it isn’t like dozens of them are any more dangerous than one. Just like a guy who owns a dozen cars can only use one at a time.
lol - risk to others - the secondary risks of firearms ownership on a utilitarian basis are so low, your argument is laughable. It is your emotional attachment that keeps you jousting at the windmills.
That looks like a lot of work. Why would you NEED 6 layers? I mean it all tastes the same, right? 
C A K E … mouth the word right now, repeat it 3 times over. Feel the texture forming on your palate, the flavor and ■■■■■ softness as it dissolves and crumbles delicately within the cathedral of your mouth. The smooth and creamy topping dancing across your tongue, squishing and circling, catching the last remnants of crumbs, mixing together, happy, like romantic euphoria on a Saturday night. CARRY CAKES NOT GUNS
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A lot of people who aren’t into guns might look in my safe and say arsenal, and the collectors I know would look and say, “that’s a good start”.
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