What's your threat model? how did you evaluate that? How does your kit cover it? How are you covering the gaps or new threats introduced by whatever you're doing?

I don't see much discussion of this, everybody is all training this give your guns to a trusted friend if you're having bad mental health that, at best. Even generally decent personalities like InRange don't push back against what's her face fully endorsing suburban paranoid fantasies but this kind of evaluation should be right up there with "you're going to carry your gun way more often that shooting it".

  • Sickos [they/them, it/its]
    ·
    4 months ago

    If you want serious and deep discussion on this though, that's kind of hard to do. The gun owner brain becomes inevitably poisoned by propaganda targeting them.
    I am worried about home invasions; I don't really have to be, they're not common, but I am.
    I am worried about being mugged; I don't really have to be, I'm ready to part with my wallet and my cellphone and I grew up in a city, know the vibe, and don't really spend much time in cities anymore.
    I am worried about mass shootings; I don't really have to be, I don't leave my house often because COVID.

    Then there's the more leftist oriented concerns.
    I'm worried about being outgunned by armed right-wingers. I address this by organizing, and by making sure my lib non-gun-owning friends know how to shoot.
    I'm worried about nazi door-to-door queer/minority roundups. I address this by organizing, hoarding food, and by making sure all my queer and minority friends know how to shoot.

    Really, though, this is all just a symptom of anxiety. "This firearm is my security blanket" is real. It's OK to not have threat models. It's OK to have unaddressed vulnerabilities. It's OK to just have guns because shooting is fun.

    Organization is stronger than planning. Planning is great, planning will make a difference, but survivability in any scenario has to be higher for a group of competent and adaptable comrades than for one person who is trying to be ready for anything. At least, that's what I tell myself when I'm catastrophizing and spiraling about what could be.

    • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
      ·
      4 months ago

      aye good points.

      the first group is full of confounding or secondary factors like "that noise at 3am is more likely to be a family member than an intruder" and anyone thinking they'll be able to draw on a mugger is delusional. That's something people should be thinking about, threat model analysis would tell us a carry gun probably isn't doing fuckall about a mugger.

      It's OK to not have threat models. It's OK to have unaddressed vulnerabilities. It's OK to just have guns because shooting is fun.

      of course, but if you're going to guns specifically for defense then i think it stops being ok to not think critically about it. If it's just personal defense there's a lot more "when and where?" or maybe bear spray is better than a magnum for actual bears on a hike kinda stuff. If shutting down a pogrom with (a show of) force is legitimately on the table then you probably have an actual militia and scouted out positions for sharpshooters in the neighborhood around the trans youth center and we're rapidly approaching rule 3.