Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/19/armed-protesters.html
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That’s an interesting idea… but realistically, it sounds like a call for martyrs; especially in the case of Black Lives Matters, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood or any group dedicated to helping people who are marginalized and disenfranchised.
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Well it would result in a lot of dead people (witness the multiple executions by police of legal gun carriers who happen to be black).
I understand the impetus coming from gun restrictions imposed by Reagan after the black panthers started open carry, but I think the lethal intentions of most US police forces and many “well-regulated militia” members these days are far, far worse than they were in CA in the 1970s
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Exactly! cops don’t need a reason to kill black people or any other person not favored by the regime. Add a scary gun to a scary person and the cop is likely to shoot himself in his haste to protect himself, society, great amerika or the poodle down the street. I agree with the sentiment but I’d hate to lose more people to the madness.
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So go out and dump piles of cash in to gun manufacturers pockets? Did someone on the right with stock in those sort of business come up with this idea?
Fix the gun problem with more guns?
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Basically we lose more people to the madness daily as it is.
I’m not saying this is the answer, but doing what we are doing isn’t helping either.
ETA I don’t remember who I heard this idea from, probably George Carlin, but how about not worrying about controlling guns; just make ammo illegal. (also not a solution, of course, for so many reasons.)
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I’ve tried to remind my more conservative friends of this story, but they just look at me and go on their way. Maybe I’m not very good at telling stories. Maybe it’s because I’m just a left wing nut.
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FYI, African American gun ownership, women’s gun ownership – and especially carry – are presently at an all-time high. And Republicans STILL support gun control: one million 18-20 yr young adults were just mugged of the very right to keep arms in Florida. Democrats support even more gun control. And gun control is still racist.
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Unfortunately, right now, I think the answer to everything seems to be “more guns.” I’d be surprised if the response on the right would be to make new gun laws. It would probably be to make short-range missiles legal or something. “For tactical self-defense against mobs of Antifa.”
I think that someone should start a conspiracy theory that Russia is trying to weaken the US by killing off men, since the biggest number of gun deaths are suicides - 2/3rds of them, and 85% of those suicides are men. Suicide by gun is also typically a sudden decision, where immediate access to a weapon is a big factor. So if Russia wanted to prepare the US for invasion (let’s get really paranoid here, it seems to be what works with crazy conspiracy theories), increasing the number of guns available to everyone would actually work in their favor. DON’T LOOK UNDER THE COVER TOO DEEPLY. It’s just a proposal for a conspiracy theory. Maybe drop it somewhere that Alex Jones can see it?
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It’s all well and good for a white man like Eiseman to advocate arming all those disencranchised groups of brown, female, and queer people. After all, it wasn’t people like him that the FBI conspired to assassinate the last time the leftists tried to exercise their second amendment rights.
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Buy used! 
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My thoughts exactly.
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This is SO not a recipe for success.
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It’s very simple. You can introduce gun control in the US.
First you need to amend the rights to bear arms.
Two ways
Article V of the Constitution prescribes how an amendment can become a part of the Constitution. While there are two ways, only one has ever been used. All 27 Amendments have been ratified after two-thirds of the House and Senate approve of the proposal and send it to the states for a vote. Then, three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed Amendment.
The other method of passing an amendment requires a Constitutional Convention to be called by two-thirds of the legislatures of the States. That Convention can propose as many amendments as it deems necessary. Those amendments must be approved by three-fourths of the states.
Then you pass a law controlling guns.
Simple to do, all legally, all democratic to boot
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Print your own and cut out the middle man:
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Remember when Philando Castile was shot by police for being a black man in legal possession of a firearm and the NRA stood up and said “this must not stand”?
Me neither.
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Nonsense. There are already all kinds of legal restrictions on what kinds of “arms” American citizens can possess and even laws about which citizens can be stripped of that right entirely.
I am open to the idea of repealing the Second Amendment if that’s what it would take to enact reasonable gun laws, but it’s hardly a prerequisite.
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I’m reminded of a meme I saw after one of the school shootings that suggested that the way to get gun control laws was for every young black man to buy a gun.
Seriously, though, I wonder if you would even need armed protestors. What if, instead, there was a drastic uptick in applications for gun permits by members of non-white races? (Is race a question on a gun permit application?) Would the statistical anomaly be enough to frighten the Right?
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No it’s, really not; entrenched greed, avarice, ignorance and ego are all huge factors that your two step ‘solution’ fails to take into account.
There are many, many people with a vested, personal interest in resisting any attempt at gun control or second amendment reform.
Yeah… while I can appreciate the inherent snark, that’s not at all a realistic or viable resolution; asking Black folks to willingly be living, walking targets on top of all the oppression, denigration and exploitation we already have to deal with daily is beyond the pale.
White folks have to stop relying on POC to do all the heavy lifting for them, when it comes to promoting real social change.
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As I’m sure you’re aware, the constitutional right to bear arms is extremely vague (doesn’t even mention guns) and all sorts of reasonable gun control measures have been found to pass constitutional muster. For example, the 1934 National Firearms Act heavily regulated and essentially banned private ownership of several categories of firearms and other weapons, and has been upheld in court. The constitution is absolutely not the primary obstacle here.
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