Redditor Vegere wanted to hear from everyone who has come face to face with weaponry and feels like sharing.
So they asked:
"Redditors who had a gun pointed at you, how are you still alive?"
Thankfully I have yet to face a real gun. I pray that continues.
Stop That!
season 2 gun GIF by PortlandiaGiphy"Friend was given a .22 handgun for his 8th-grade graduation. He started waving it around, I said stop that. He said it isn't loaded and pulled the trigger. The bullet went through my hair right above my right ear. Never spoke to that dumba** again."
Bigfoots44
Out of There...
"I was living in a rough neighborhood a couple of years ago. One evening I was walking to the local grocery store when I suddenly walked into this huge dude (195cm and 90kg so I'm not a small person myself). Before I knew it i was surrounded and dragged into an alley and had a gun pointed at me. One of the guys asked me to show an ID."
"At that point I thought they were under cover cops, but them all wearing balaclavas made me doubt that. I showed the my ID and they patted my shoulder, shook my hand and said they're sorry for getting the wrong guy. Then they left. Gangs were basically running that neighborhood and they were most likely looking for someone who owed them money."
"And I must've looked just like that guy. It could've been very traumatic but the fact that they apologized afterward actually made me feel safe lol, and I just shrugged it off. Still glad I'm not living there anymore though."
SnooRobots2119
"Have a nice day"
"Some parts of my country are just chaos. My dad was fixing this telecom tower like usual and I would go with him every once in a while. But this time is different, it was like 11pm and the area we went to is... you could say 'above the law' so the tower is in a mansion and we couldn't find anyone to tell them we're here but you could access the tower so my dad did anyway. After an hour, my dad was done and drove away, it was fine until he noticed 3 cars following us."
"He parks and a bunch of guys with guns walk out of their cars. My dad was chill trying to give them the car key, it's the company car anyways. Then they saw the company's logo on the car and they went 'oh' It was a misunderstanding and they were like 'have a nice day.'"
Utaha_Senpai
No Booze Please
"The person was playing around and thought the gun was unloaded. He pointed it at my head and was about to pull the trigger when my husband, who had been raised to learn that you never, ever point a gun at anyone grabbed it away from him. It turned out the gun was loaded. The person was an alcoholic and forgot that he had loaded the gun last time he got drunk."
Snoo_20029
Sheer Luck
"First time, armed robbery while at work years ago. He just wanted the money from the register so no big deal there. Second time… I didn’t even know a gun was pointed at me. Random shooting, I took a bullet to the back of the head while driving. Alive due to sheer luck."
Floptopus
Guns and people... what a mix.
Not Me
i give up GIF by Venom MovieGiphy"My vehicle fit the suspect description, but I didn't."
insertcaffeine
just missed...
"My dad was screwing around with a rifle pointing it at his sister and to his surprise it went off. It missed her but put a hole through the wall. My dad knew he'd be in trouble when his parents came home so he decided to go to bed early."
"His dad was a scrap iron recycler and was lifting heavy things all day. He could easily do one handed push ups."
"My dad said the next day his dad woke him up and without saying a word, motioned for him to go outside. His dad pointed to a tree. To this day, my dad has no idea how his dad wrapped the rifle around a tree, but there it was."
grewapair
In the Forest
"Years ago , first real job I was in training as a forest ranger and came upon a large group of men night hunting standing by several dead deer ,all were armed and as I exited the vehicle many of the guns were pointed in my direction. In training I was not armed and as they realized it guns were lowered. I was alone, unarmed, outnumbered and should have been writing summonses but I was just glad to leave."
clementine1864
Whoops
"I let the gun holder make the first moves. I didn't talk unless I was addressed first. I didn't move unless I was told to. I didn't try to run or leave until he left.
"And then I peed myself."
somethingsomewhere27
"Similar situation. I was stuck up in college (west Philly) and I just gave the guy what he wanted calmly. He had followed me into my house off campus. He then stole my bike and rode it off."
Pure-Ad2609
Fool
Big Boi Smh GIF by OutkastGiphy"My brother pointed a rifle at me, just fooling around. Aimed the gun down and slid the bolt, found the gun was loaded. He threw up."
1999falcon
I hate guns even more now.
Do you have a harrowing experience of your own to share? Let us know in the comments.
Redditor Mister_DumDum asked:
"What's the worst weapon (but undeniably a weapon) to have in the Zombie Apocalypse?"
Reload!
"I’d imagine a Musket would suck."
"Makes a ton of noise and only get one shot with a long reload period."
GiphyAll choked up
"One of those assassin choke cables."
- zinglord69
"Garrote wire."
- USS-Missouri
"...piano wire...for...garroting."
- oyM8cunOIbumAciggy
Giphy
Been there, done that...
"A biological weapon that turns people into zombies."
- DavidHewlett
"So, a zombie?"
- Mouler
GiphySpicy
"Pepper spray. You have to be close enough to use it and once you do, they don't give a sh*t because they are dead and can't feel it."
- ghostiesontoasties
GiphySorry, Ash
"Chainsaw, too loud, too much maintenance to be good."
- TimSherrySucks
"I was gonna say chainsaw too."
"Incredibly dangerous to the user, you must get in close to use it, would get jammed up, need sharpening often and fling contaminated blood everywhere."
- polarbearrape
GiphyClean up on aisle...
"I work at a steel mill and one of the services we provide is melting down weapons involved in violent crimes that have been confiscated by police departments."
"So if everything they’ve brought to be melted down qualified as a weapon, my answer would be a Swiffer mop."
- SmartAlec105
"I love that confiscating and melting down that Swiffer was deemed necessary."
- Deracination
GiphyBut, does he die or not?
"Wolverine Claws, you eject them and slice up zombies, now they are covered in infected zombie blood, you retract them into your body, thereby infecting yourself with zombie virus."
- WAXnIT
"If it was wolverine then his healing factor would just make him even more deadly. An unstoppable force even."
- Bandit263
"Or continually self healing undead state."
- Mouler
GiphyRoundhouse or uppercut
"Brass knuckles."
"Imagine you punch a zombie in the face but he bites you in the process."
- Exene9
Giphy
There are definitely some things to consider here.
Does electricity or water or fire work against zombies?
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Giphy
Let's face it. While platitudes are all well and good, they are merely a contrivance to fill the silence that has stunned devastated communities.
As many American citizens call for stricter gun legislation, there are just as many who advocate for their right to the Second Amendment.
How has this become the polarizing issue in the country while many other parts of the world maintain peace–presumably due to citizens not having the right to bear arms?
Genuinely curious to hear from a specific demographic, Redditor Wonderful-Wash-2145 asked:
"To the Americans who don’t agree with changing the gun laws? Why?"
People shared their informed opinions in great detail.
When Gun Advocates Lack Common Sense Or Knowledge
"I live in a state, California, which has all of the gun laws that people are asking for and then some. While our gun violence isn't as high as a lot of other states, it was already rapidly trending downward before our biggest laws, like our 'Assault Weapons' ban passed. And we've still had our share of mass shootings. With the laws in place it's easy to see why they're ineffective."
"Assault Weapons ban? Because the only thing separating an AR-15 from any other semi-automatic rifle are ergonomic features like the stock and grip, AR-15s and similar rifles are still sold here, just with those features swapped out for less comfortable alternatives."
"'Universal' Background Checks? What people don't realize is that every gun store around the country has to run background checks on buyers already, 'Universal' means that private sellers have to do that too. How is that accomplished? The buyer and seller have to meet at a gun shop so the gun shop can run the background check. The problem is, there's nothing to stop someone from just NOT doing that. If you want to sell a gun to your best friend, there's nothing stopping you from doing it in the comfort of your own home, no paperwork required. So universal background checks aren't universal, they're voluntary but if people called them voluntary background checks, it would be too self-evident that they're not much of a solution."
"Before people say 'Well one state having those laws is ineffective because people can just buy from another state.' No, that's not legal. You can only legally buy a gun in the state in which you reside. Do people still do it? Yes, people break the law by buying from private sellers, which more laws wouldn't prevent."
"Americans buy 15 Million guns a year from dealers, who knows how many are purchased from private sellers. Countries like Australia where gun control has been effective only had a few million guns in their whole country, much less the hundreds of millions that the US has."
"The reason gun nuts oppose 'common sense' gun control is that a prerequisite for common sense is common knowledge, and it's rare for gun control advocates to have knowledge of both firearms and the laws that currently regulate them in pro gun control states like California."
In The Absence Of Enforcement
"And, a lot of the existing laws aren't enforced. Domestic abusers are supposed to surrender their arms are rarely do and the police rarely follow up, for example. I saw a thread yesterday where someone cited 27,000 known firearms holders that were illegal that law enforcement didn't do anything about."
– allboolshite
Weak arguments were also presented.
A Proposal
"So why not make guns have to be registered the way cars are? If I want to sell my car to my friend, I have to fill out paperwork to tell the state that the title for that car is being transferred to my friend. Can’t we do the same for guns?"
– SenoraNegra
A Salesman's Statistic
"I sell auto insurance. Do you know how often someone comes in to insure a vehicle they purchased but never put into their name? Literally like 5 times a weeks if not more."
– Hemp_Milk
Troubling Situation
"A big problem with anything regulatory is how ripe it is to be exploited for the person doing the regulations. A lot of gun control measures have to be enforced by someone and if that person is racist, guess who gets the regulations enforced against them more often? It's still a policing issue when at the core a large group of people simply can't trust the police, and now this is putting both parties in an even more dangerous position."
– Marco2021st
The thread continued sparking a lengthy discussion about gun culture.
A Slippery Slope
"I think one of the concerns that people are thinking about is that the 'gun reform' movement is a stomach that can't ever be satisfied, meaning, they are always going to ask for more ways to reform guns until eventually people won't get to have any. And I think people who are against gun reform know that 'gun reform' is a slippy slope to banning guns outright and overturning the 2nd Amendment."
– BoringNoise9942
What's The Point?
"Governments do not care about their people. Look at selling drugs to the black community, poisoning alcohol during prohibition, anti-privacy laws, I could go on but there's no need to fill paragraphs of these things. And we're supposed to hand over our tools of self-defense and expect the government to protect us? The same government that just sat there outside the Uvalde school?"
"And how are they going to get guns out of the hands of criminals anyway? A good chunk of these shooters are already using guns they can't legally own. If they try to completely get rid of firearms through a 'war on guns' in the same way they've waged a 'war on drugs' for decades, then the amount of illegal, untraceable firearms is only going to go up with every passing decade."
– Mama_Mega_
The Challenge Of Regulating Culture
"I think people are dancing around a core point here as well: you cannot legislate culture."
"Say we do implement just the most severe of gun laws and, miracle beyond miracles, they are 100% effective. Alright, so if I want to hurt a bunch of people en masse and guns are out of the question what do I do? What about just running a van through a crowd? What about some improvised explosive devices? Knives?"
"People think guns are the problem, but they are just a very convenient tool by which the problem expresses itself. I’ve lived in many of the so-called 'safe countries' with strong gun laws. In some respects, they are indeed safer, but it’s because the laws reflect a pre-existing cultural sentiment. This also doesn’t mean random mass violence doesn’t happen. I’m going to use Japan here because that’s a country I spent a long time in: there were the famous sarin gas attacks in 1994, also a murderer who drove a vehicle through a crowd in Akihabara (early 2000’s, I believe), and a lot more public stabbing sprees than you’d expect. One even happened a few stations down from me while living there and three little girls on their way to school died. It’s more of historical crime now, but there was also an early 1900’s mass shooting where a man, rejected by local women, decided to cut off power in his local village and systematically execute everyone in their sleep before blowing his own head off at dawn."
"The effort needs to be put into why we seem to have so many disaffected people who are so far gone that mass shootings seem like a reasonable consideration. Gun laws are ultimately just a bandaid fix and, because a good portion of the U.S. is culturally attuned to firearms in a positive way, it’s a bandaid fix that one would have to fight tooth and nail for."
"It would be an inefficient fight and even absolute victory would just result in a half measure. I oppose gun laws for precisely the same reason I oppose the war on drugs; it’s a fight that will never end just by slapping on new policies. Generations of legislators and activists will commit to it and unfathomable amounts of tax dollars will be dumped into it and in 30 years we will still be asking ourselves the same fundamental questions about our safety."
"The uncomfortable reality, at least from where I sit, is that a lasting solution is going to have to be proactive, play the long game, and be willing to figure out what has gone so wrong in our social makeup as to push people to random acts of mass violence."
"And even then, there will still just be psychopaths beyond salvaging and reincorporating into functional society."
"I also know people will want to just say 'no, more just gun laws' or 'this is all the fault of capitalism' etc. etc. but I think those who hold these simplistic, one-note positions are fooling themselves into thinking that this is as easy as identifying the sole 'big bad thing' and then destroying it. As a historian, I can guarantee you that it’s never just one factor at play.'
"I couldn’t agree more that Americans need a more proactive and preventative approach to this issue. But I think guns are just the patsy boogeyman that is simple and comfortable to place blame on. If Americans choose to fight that fight, then so be it, but I maintain that it will be long and ineffectual. In the mean time, more will die and we can all happily believe we are doing something about it."
– Samhain27
What Is It About America?
"I get 'gun culture'. But why is the US more violent?"
I think madmen and people that commit acts of random violence are basically the same % in every country. Difference is that if a mad men in my country comes at a supermarket with a knife, he might kill one or two people but he will get tackled."
"Taking a car trough a crowd, been there. That's a different animal, is terrorism."
– Good-Groundbreaking
The thread was full of debates with pro-gun activists presenting their case and anti-gun advocates responding with arguments.
It's an endless discussion that has no resolve in sight.
So now what? What are your thoughts and suggestions that would promote a compromise or solution about gun control?
