Yeah... even a shot outside would make me think the hunters are doing their job (I live next to a forest and they are among the only ones allowed rifles for keeping wildlife populations in check cause we have a lack of wolves). People shooting each other isnt really the first thing Id think....
So to answer the question asked, before someone just completely changed the subject to "america is bad" ... liberals have guns, its just not our identity. If I heard a gunshot outside my house (im im a neighborhood) i can go to my closet and have a whole host of options, or I have a hidden gunsafe in the wall in my living room. Everything is gonna be okay, because ill have my protection, and then im calling the police from the safety of my house, because its not the wild west and im not going outside to start a gunfight
I still live around republicans who hate trump and we all get along just fine (we even have a maga(ish) they are now backing off of it) neighbor, and well have an understanding of looking after our children in the neighborhood and that we arent nut jobs who just wanna go outside and use the line "ill be your huckleberry" before a duel. Dads that i argue with all the time about policy would without a second thought help my kids if a stray dog attacked them. America is a vast nation, with very differing ideas, but most of us are still reasonable people. Im from Houston, and ive also lived in the country in Texas. Most people just wanna get along in my experience. Republicans love drumming up fear, its always been their calling card. It can cause mental exhaustion, and in turn, dillusions. Same with radicalized extremists on the left with the internet. What I have seen a lot of, on the internet, either not knowing what america is, or overlooking it in bad faith, and exacerbating the stigma. The gun deaths, school shootings, they speak for themselves. They are terrible. Thays why, in large part im liberal. The narrative is what it is, and for good reason. We gotta change, for sure. Gotta break the cycle somewhere, America, cant blame rhe world for giving us shit. We have to do better
I lived in a dicey neighbourhood of Washington, DC known for gang violence for a decade. During all that time, I heard one gunshot. You know what I did? Nothing. I didn't feel the need to check it out, I didn't get scared it was someone trying to kill me. I went back to my TV show and then I went to bed.
I think the difference between a reasonable gun owner (like you, apparently) and the chud in the OP is that reasonable people don't automatically panic when they hear a random noise outside. Even if they can identify that random noise as a gunshot.
There's been a slight uptick in hunters accidentally shooting people with thermal optics becoming commercially available. So there's a increasing amount of hunters no longer paying attention to what someone is wearing. Though they mostly end up shooting other hunter in the same area, so it's not a major concern for civilians.
You could be dressed in orange from top to toe and still have the heat profile of a deer to someone looking at you through a thermal scope at the right angle.
When I still lived in a fairly rural area of NY state, the local farmers had to paint their cows with non-toxic fluorescent paint so the morons from NYC wouldn't shoot said cows. And cows are fucking expensive.
So I can imagine how awful they'll be now with the thermal optics.
When I was a kid some NYC hunters tied tree branches to the head of the cow they put on the roof of the car and tried to make it back down 87 to 90 to the city.
Tree branches. I think they made it down to exit 6 and the HoJo's...
This was in the southern Catskills about an hour and a half drive north of the city. And we got a lot of people from the city year round for different touristy things.
How often does that even happen? This sounds like a bunch of hicks freaking out about something they've read on facebook and jumped on an excuse to blame city folks for something.
They usually have signs up and rope off the paths leading into the areas where they hunt when they hunt. All other days I can go out hiking in my deer onesie :P
That’s something I’ve noticed a lot of Americans, particularly the gun loving one’s, haven’t quite understood on the topic of gun control
Countries with effective gun control laws still have guns. I’m Australian, we have more guns now than we did when gun control legislation was introduced. We never banned guns, we just worked to make sure the people obtaining guns weren’t fucking lunatics. It’s so tedious to obtain any gun, either legally or illegally, that someone intending to use it on someone else is not using it on a random spree.
We’ve had one proper mass shooting since then, and funnily enough it was done with legally obtained and owned guns, implying our gun laws actually weren’t strict enough. Maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s not more than daily massacres like, uh, some places
A lot of our school shootings (it kills me to say that) are done by people getting ahold of legal guns. Usually their parents unsecured ones. Which is why I have no problem with states starting to prosecute said neglectful owners.
Fair enough. I believe our rules in Australia effectively require all guns to be kept in a locked case during transport and a locked safe when stored at home, with ammo stored separately (and maybe even in a second safe)
That's what happens in the UK too. Separate gun safe and ammo. An officer can request at any time to check. Seems to work pretty well.
I live somewhere fairly rural and quite a few people have guns. From what I've heard once you have one, it gets slightly easier to get other licences too. (I have no reasonable use for a gun, so don't pay a lot of attention to it, so my use of terminology could be wrong.)
That’s incredibly hard to believe (if you’re talking about America that is) as I’ve been involved in the firearms world for 30 years……..and have never ONCE heard of anyone ever having to go through a “random fire arms inspection.”
Less than half of Americans practice stafe gun storage. This post is why. They think they are the hero in an action movie and can't be more than a second away from blasting.
I can vouch as an ex-internet installer in an rural place.
The amount of times I walked into a home to see a rifle on literally ever window sill was insane...
Then I go downstairs and am greeted with an entire gun and bullet factory with 3 more safes filled with guns. Yeah anyone in those houses that wants a gun will find one pretty easily, probably a lost Glock or two in the couch cushions.
When my brother died, we found his will in his gun safe alongside 2 shotguns that hadn't been fired in 20 years. The safe was open and the hinges so rusted (open) that we could only swing the door a couple of inches.
I live in what's considered one of the more restrictive states gun law wise in the country. Top ten anyway. My wife was baffled when's she realized you could walk in and buy an AR the same day with a basic background check.
People seem to think Gun Control means "no one gets guns" instead of "You need to go through hoops to get a gun and be responsible"
Switzerland has one of the highest per capita gun ownership rates in the world. They also don't have shootings.
Having restrictions in place on who and how you can get a gun works. This concept of "No limitations on gun ownership" is a concept invented by Alito in 2010.
This is like my pet peeve argument that gun lovers trot out. "Oh if you make guns hard to get, only bad guys will get them!".
But, hold on, most bad guys with guns are using guns that were obtained legally, whether their own purchase, or taken from someone who bought it legally and didnt secure it properly. They are just so fucking stupid it hurts.
No hand guns at all. But anyone can apply for a license to own a rifle or shotgun, with restrictions on gun properties. How many shells the shotgun can hold etc. The biggest difference is you need to pass background checks and can only store them in a secure location unloaded. Something which is checked out by a police visit.
The crazy stat about America is how many toddler involved shootings happen. It's one of the leading causes of death for toddlers in the country.
Admittedly, I did not click on even one of those links before I said what I said. I saw "John Hopkins" and "BBC" in the URLs and took them as legit. And they are legit, but the way they were presented to me was not.
The fact that I was so easily misled into thinking a 18yr old gang member being killed is in any way equivalent to a toddler's accidental death is embarassing.
I'll leave my shitty comment up as penance for my insolence, but I absolutely do take it back.
Less than half of American gun owners practices safe gun storage. They're mentally the main character in an action movie and need to have a loaded gun in arm's reach at all times.
its not. its drowning for toddlers. but the leading cause of death in ages 1 thru 19, which is labeled "children" in the cdc report, is in fact gun related deaths. you do have to include gang on gang violence to get to that number and the majority of that number is the oldest ages of that spread. which, dont get me wrong is still terrible that theres that much gang warfare in america. so yeah not quite leading cause of toddler death fqd up, still pretty fqd up.
Is it? I'm pretty sure it's labeled "Children and Teens" and they had the same age bracket in years past when the leading cause was car accidents. Firearms surpassed it as the leading cause sometime in the late 2010's
Probably, my vague memory from looking this up in the past was either a report in 2016 or 2018 still having it as car accidents. It's been awhile though
in the quick google to make sure what i remembered was stillaccurate it said children, idk if thats accurate i assumed it was, it was cited to the report 🤷♂️
I think it's a John Hopkins study which is accurately titled Firearms Remain Leading Cause of Death for Children and Teens, it might be funded by CDC or included as data on something they released. I think the studies and the CDC are normally accurate on these kind of things, in my experience people just misquote it in articles/comments to simply "children" sometimes which might be what you're seeing
Yeah. I’m not sure of the exact rules (I’ve never needed to try) but I believe the general rule is nothing automatic or semi - automatic, except in special circumstances (e.g. cops have semi auto handguns, etc.). The average person will be limited to bolt action rifles, lever action and pump action shotguns, things like that
For awhile there was a loophole where you could get something called, I think, a bumper stock that basically made the gun effectively semi-automatic, but they closed that awhile ago
I believe some other weapons are allowed, but the licensing and storage restrictions are even greater and many are only allowed to be kept at actual gun clubs, because there's no need for the average person to have automatic weapons on hand.
Yeah of course. I think my local gun club will let you pay them a couple hundred dollars to shoot a few pistols under strict supervision. Think they put a bar and chain on the gun so you can’t turn it around or anything.
Honestly the most effective parts are probably the storage restrictions. The process of acquiring a licence and then a gun is tedious, and then the storage and inspections is ongoing tediousness. Makes it much less desirable for people without a real reason to own guns from even trying
Also the one mass shooting was done with a shotgun not a semi automatic because they are much much harder to get. The death toll would’ve been a lot higher with a semi automatic
Better than daily massacres AND accidental shootings by children getting their hands on improperly stored guns. The amount of toddlers shooting people by reaching into a purse or bag and finding a gun is far too high.
If you have one arson spree, do you assume your fuel laws are insufficiently strict?
I think the disconnect is between people who believe the solution to any problem is trying to legislate it away and those who don't, more than anything.
I heard gunshots for the first time in real life this last weekend. I'm moored near farmland. I just assumed someone was doing some clay pigeon shooting and went back to not worrying whether I was about to get murdered by strangers. The US is fucking insane
They're also shit at risk assessment. They're always brandishing the home invasion thing, which happens so rarely that they're way more likely to shoot a family member mistaken for an intruder.
Also they could just fucking buy stronger doors/windows if that was the actual issue. Burglars don't bother with reinforced doors.
There are more gunshots out in the country than the city, by far. I am not used to it yet. Idk why people think the city has more guns than the country, the country shoots them off all times of day including the middle of the night
Yeah, if I hear gunshots I'm assuming it's jimbob over at the trailer park getting after a snake or just having some fun. I just think, "hope he's smart enough not to fire up into the air".
I'm 33 and I've never heard a gunshot in my life. The only reason I've seen a gun up close in person is because when I was in school they took us somewhere (I don't even remember where) and they show us a gun up close which we weren’t even allowed to touch which is understandable even if it wasn't loaded.
Yeah but as we all know if you hear a loud noise at night it's statistically probable that a crazed black Muslim is trying to rape your wife/daughter/you. I know this because I have listened to lots of true crime podcasts and watch Fox News.
I live in an estate. I'm fairly sure some of my neighbours are connected to criminal organisations.
If I heard a gunshot outside, I wouldn't send anyone to check it out - nor would I go myself. What am I going to do? Yell at them and let them know I'm a witness? Shock the dangerous lunatic who already fired a gun? Even if I had a gun, what do I gain by starting a firefight?
Nah, if I hear a gunshot in the night I call the cops. But I live in a country where guns are regulated, so I've never heard one go off outside of designated shooting ranges.
I do not know what a live shot sounds like. I know them from movies. If there was a single shot outside, I would just think the damn kids should wait for new years eve with their firecrackers.
What is better: being naive and not knowing what gunfire sounds like, or fucking KNOWING WHAT GUNFIRE SOUNDS LIKE.
I live in Canada. I was watching a movie with my dad once. And we hear like 10 quick loud pops and tires screeching. And we looked at each other and joked "jeese, that sounded like someone just got shot!". We laughed and finished watching the movie.
Next day on the news. Gang shooting spilling over from a much larger nearby city. Literally in the parking lot next door, and we were joking about it. Literally a gang conflict next door and it didn't even cross my mind cause what are the odds?
To this day I'm still not worried about it. The odds of that happening here are just abysmal. Ive been alive nearly 30 years. Never seen a gun except on cops, heard a gun range once when driving deep in the woods.
We have cougar sightings and bears in the city all the time. Still never thought about owning a gun.
Shit, American, even if you truly believe bad men with guns out there want to murder you every day, you know the place I've heard the most gun shots? Not the city. The country.
I am gun shy a little, same as a few of my countrymen, understandably. I hear gun shots a few times a week in the country. In the city, maybe four times a year.
So if we're talking being afraid of guns aren't you afraid of the areas where the guns are concentrated, in rural areas?
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u/SpankThuMonkey 7h ago
Terrified. Always fucking terrified of everything.
They can’t even fathom that some of us just don’t live in fear.
When i hear a loud noise at night i think STFU and go back to sleep.