At least it's not a fucky-wucky. That's what it would have been if Eve had somehow stumbled upon it while clearing out the closet of Tiff's old Boy Clothes.
My Dad did this to my Mom before he passed away. He was a great Dad, and I didnât appreciate him as much as I should have. But in the last ~10 years of his life he started to become a 2A nut. Against my momâs wishes.
We grew up in a firearm free house. My parents felt the risk to me and my sister wasnât worth the âhome protection.â My best friend also died from a gun suicide because his idiot parents didnât secure the gun. After he got ahold of the weapon multiple times!
Once my parents retired and moved to Arizona, my Dad immediately got his license and a gun. He left it loaded and unlocked next to his bed on the night stand, and kept it a secret from my Mom because he knew she wouldnât approve. I donât have a problem with people owning guns, but a lot of people are irresponsible with them, and so was my Dad. Despite us having experience with gun violence.
He didnât sleep well, and would often get startled awake by the dogs. Iâm sure there was a good chance of him accidentally shooting my Mom if she got up in the middle of the night and scared him. Then Covid happened, and he started to stockpile guns. Including an AR15. All against my Momâs wishes, and he said he was doing it to âprotect her.â
I love my Dad, and miss him dearly, but this really tarnished my opinion of him in his final years. Especially when growing up, heâd love to explain how a dog that barks at anything is a much better way to protect your home (we had a beagle and later boxers). Also good boy/girl head pats!
Edit: grammar
Edit 2: LOL love the gun nuts not reading my post, and just jumping in to tell me Iâm wrong. You need to work on your reading comprehension. Maybe pick up a book instead? Itâll probably be the best thing you could do to improve yourself.
An interesting thing about dogs is that they can actually be trained to sleep against the entry way to a dwelling so that they wake up if anyone opens the door or tries to force it.
We had a break in once when I was 10. My Dad was having problems with his back, and would sometimes sleep on the couch in the family room. One night he was woken up by someone trying to break in through the sliding glass door.
There were vertical blinds so the guy couldnât see into the house. My Dad took up position next to the door, waited for him to pick the lock, and as soon as he stepped through the blinds he punched him right in the teeth, knocking him back outside onto the patio. He took off, and the police never caught him, but they did find a tooth on the deck.
Our beagle slept through the whole thing until the cops got there, but in fairness, she was 13 at the time. Well past her guard dog and howling days. Well, except howling at squirrels. Fuck them squirrels! https://giphy.com/gifs/Mt0IKnQaKdSTu
Also interesting is that unless you have a 7000sq/ft home filled with water features and white noise machines⌠the dog will hear someone open a door regardless of where they sleep.
If someone is actually forcing the door Iâm not even sure the 7k sq/ft of fountains and fans will hide the noise from a dog with average hearing.
Huh, Iâve never heard that rule about keeping it on safe until ready to fire, and I learned it as the 4 rules of firearm safety, with that rule excluded. Could be because a large number of handguns donât have an external safety whereas the other rules are all universal.
In case any gun newbies stumble across here, revolvers donât have safeties because they have a heavy double action trigger that canât really be pulled by accident. Polymer handguns like Glocks also frequently do not have an external safety and instead rely on the user to simply not pull the trigger when they donât want to shoot.
To clarify on Glocks, they do have a little dingus built into the trigger. It acts as a safety in the sense that it makes it harder for the trigger to move if itâs not a finger pulling it (e.g. something gets caught in the trigger guard while reholstering). However, it doesnât need a separate action to activate/deactivate it like a manual safety. When you put your finger on the trigger, you automatically deactivate it.
Reminds me of the time my aunt (Vietnam vet) was looking at a new gun at home, and tried "dry firing" it. It was loaded. She thankfully only put a hole in the floor.
Yep, this is why I ALWAYS stress to keep everything unloaded at all times and follow gun safety... the amount of pain si.ple mistakes cause is just... ugh
A loaded gun is loaded. An unloaded gun is loaded. A disassembled gun is loaded. The rubber band gun you found in the toy chest in grandma's attic is loaded. Every gun is always loaded.
This is why I hate that some striker fired firearms require you to pull the trigger for disassembly vs. some others require you to cycle the slide & thus empty the chamber just in case
There's a reason the first things you check are always the chamber and if relevant magazine, and until and every weapon is carrying SchrĂśdinger's cartridgesâuntil you've actually persoanlly, yourself, confirmed their presence/absence you cannot safely assume anything. They are always loaded unless proven otherwise.
Then even when you've proven otherwise you still treat them as loaded to the greatest extent allowed by whatever activity you're engaging in with the firearm, because it's good habit and mistakes happen.
Honestly I dont know too much about it. She went through training like other soldiers but never deployed to a combat position. I think she spent most of her time in places like Saigon doing support work.
Assuming you're from the US, Australia, or New Zealand, that's because women weren't even allowed in combat roles until the 21st century (2016 for the US, 2013 for Aus, and 2007 for NZ). But despite that they were still required to go through firearms training, so that they could effectively defend themselves in the event that their deployment did get attacked by enemy forces.
Good memories of putting the stock of a shotgun on my shoulder joint instead of a bit over on the muscle. Got a few clay pigeons but man my shoulder ached to high hell for the next few days.
Adding to this, look up if you have a local Pink Pistols chapter. My local chapter has been amazing at getting me going, and now I teach other queers to shoot! Armed queers don't get bashed!
We got our first anti firearm legislation due 100% because of minorities arming themselves to fight oppression.
When it comes between what is effectively the ruling class of the United states, corporations and billionaires, and the rest of the citizens, basically the peasantry. The peasantry are the majority but effectively the minority.
Anti firearm legislation has been around for over 100 years before the restrictions Reagan put in because of the black panthers see the north carolina permitting scheme history for the furthest back off the top of my head and the NY permitting scheme back in early 1900s to restrict italians and political rivals, but still your point stands they were put in place so black people or the disfavored minority at the time couldnt arm themselves.
I met the most badass trans woman at my local range. She had 3D printed her own ammo cases in the trans flag colors and was all decked out with super colorful gear. It was super fun to talk to her!
Reveal that Tiff has secretly been hunting all of that venison that Eve has been eating in jerky form this whole time. She kept thinking that she was getting sent it by one of her 7 brothers.
That or they just live in the Midwest. The amount of times people ask me if i want to try there jerky or meat sticks (yes that's what we call them) is insane.
Yup. Hunting for them basically involves walking through the woods until you spook one. They take off and fly in a nice arc. Or you spot one sitting in a tree. They're not exactly smart.
I'd like to point out that the first picture is of a Sage Grouse, and they have the funniest mating call. They also should be on the endangered species list, but because of how they breed and where they live, it would be disastrously inconvenient to follow all the rules and regulations surrounding that. As part of a deal with the Feds, the states that have them have dedicated conservation programs to keep them off the list.
I'm definitely in a minority in spaces I participate in, being pro-self-defense while also trans and British. Not a 2A nut but banning pepper spray is an absurd policy made by a government that openly hates women.
I also don't have a rational counter to the fact that if I could owned a hangun I wouldn't be alive or the fact that I'm far more likely to be maced than need to mace someone. But self-defense shouldn't be rationalised- it should be a right.
And of course there's the fact that criminals don't obey the law which nobody realised when banning weapons.
What the actual fuck! I carry a thing of it with me everywhere (US)
I completely understand firearm bans. I get why people would want knife bans (even if they might seem weird to me). But pepper spray?? Are you just... Expected to take it? Is that their actual goal, to promote a lack of self defense? Encourage rape and murder??
More than open carry. UK banned non-licensed firearms a long while ago. I think it was due to some nut shooting up a nursery (pre-school) but thatâs before my time. Iâve never known a time where rifles and handguns havenât been heavily restricted to things like hunting. Most Iâve shot is clay pigeons with an over-under.
That said, i grew up in an area with a gun shop and always loved going in there to look at the stock. Most of it was air guns, replicas, knock-offs, etc. Still all incredibly restricted, but on display.
I did at one point know one of the very few registered legit handgun owners in the country. He was permitted it specifically for the purpose of euthanizing severely injured wildlife.
Just to clarify, the person youâre responding to wasnât saying âOCâ meaning open carry, they mean pepper spray, referring to âoleoresin capsicumâ, the irritant in pepper spray.
Thank you for the clarification! I had no idea lol. I thought it was a bit of an odd turn in the conversation but had no idea what else it would have been talking about
Self defense exists only in common law and having something that you intend to use against someone is considered possession of an offensive weapon even if you only keep it for self defense. Your only allowed to use whatever you have to hand at the time of being assaulted to defend yourself.
Pepper sprays sit in the same category of firearm (yes it is considered a gun legally) as say an mg42. Only museums can legally own them
Regardless of your stance on gun possession, it should be an explicit conversation with every resident of a home that there are firearms and how they are stored.
I'm not saying give everyone access, but every adult should absolutely have explicit knowledge and consent to living with firearms.
(tl;dr: mixed bag; think critically; support our rights before we're in a position where it would have been nice to still have them)
I am of the opinion that very little "gun control" legislation has anything to do with preventing violence, and all you have to do is look at that moniker we've used to identify that very category of legislation. You're (hypothetical 'you', not 'you' literally) telling me that banning the sale of magazines over 10 rounds is preventing someone from shooting a bunch of people? That restricting suppressors unless you bend over backwards and pay a tax on your rights is preventing folks from shooting a bunch of people? That legislating that a rifle's barrel must be at least 16" is preventing a criminal from chopping off their barrel with a hack saw? Requiring licenses to purchase guns or ammo (another tax on your rights) prevents someone from killing someone else with a firearm?
I can go on . . .Â
Now on the other hand, things like safe storage laws, mandatory background checks during all firearms purchases, training requirements, these measures absolutely incentivize or directly contribute to safer environments.
I'm not someone to deify the founding fathers (I mean really, come on) but I think it's important to consider that even if someone personnaly can't think of a future where they would own a firearm, they should at least try to think of a situation where someone else might need to rely on one for their safety. This is one thing the authors of our constitution thought ahead about and enshrined as a protected right exactly because they conceived of times where the People may need to take their life into their own gands. What is a cop's constitutional & legal responsibility? It isn't to protct your life with theirs, according to the supreme court. And at best, their response time is measured in minutes when someone has potential seconds to react to a life threatening situation. No one is coming to save you. So what is to be done?
What reddit idiot dev thought we wanted forced live comments as the default? I want to see the top comments. See what actually has value to engage with and shit on.
I'm conflicted but not due to the risk of unintentional misuse but the risk of intentional self directed use (to be euphemistic about it).
I have had a few close calls. Almost ended up a statistic one time.
What I know for sure? If I had had a firearm, it would have been a certainty.
And Tiff... Not to put t o o fine a point on it, Tiff does come from a high-risk demographic. I'm not trying to be hurtful here not am I saying it's her fault or anything -- it's just a part of the risk calculus.
I myself come from a high-risk demographic due to my psychiatric diagnoses. Something like a 20% mortality and a 50% attempt rate in that population.
I'm really sorry to butt in, but...
ETA: I am not saying you don't need protection. Of course you do. So here's some alternatives (check jurisdiction):
Pepper spray -- practically a chemical weapon.
Taser -- ehh. Good for 1v1 but not 1vMany.
Baton -- think: She-Ra but way more portable. Needs more training tho.
And the one most commonly used by women in Delhi (my present residence): strength in numbers. Commuting together in groups of 2-3, especially in lonely hours.
This is a super valid point. I think everyone should be able to defend themselves, but, as you've stated, not everyone needs an off switch that close to them.
Thing is there is a very direct link between the time and cognitive effort needed to execute the easiest exit available, and the odds you will survive your crisis.
Even in a months-long crisis, it is very unlikely that every waking hour will be an equal torment. You may even yo-yo between being relieved that you haven't done something yet, and a few hours later actually be in danger of left alone.
Those super severe phases are transient, even if recurring. You want to make the time-to-point-of-no-return to be large.
It is a frequent enough pattern -- survivors regret attempting. Those who have an opportunity to undo their method, often do so -- OD survivors often are saved by an ambulance that they themselves call.
I am conflicted. As I see both Tiff and Eves points here. Violence against violence, but also being able to protect yourself, but also guns in the home...I am at a loss. I am unsure there is one answer here.
Oh I do have a story about a gun in the home though. Waaaaay back in college (damnit I am old) my roommate was a hunter. And one early morning at like 4am he was getting ready to drive up to the ranch. He was packing his rifle when the damn thing went off and went through a nearby wall into my other roommates room. Luckily no one was hurt but fuck
So I kinda get where Eve is coming from. Not that Tiff doesn't deserve to feel safe a defend herself either. Though I suppose these two roommies have more to discuss now that we know a rifle is in the home. I dunno. Heres a frog with a gun
I've never personally experienced it, but the phenomenon of swearing you unloaded it but it still having a live round in there is why you always treat it as if it were loaded anyway in proper gun safety courses.
Luckily that is why no one was hit. He did treat it as if it were loaded and was pointed towards the bottom of a wall. Which is where the bullet hit. If he had it on a bed or pointed up at all my other roommate may have been going to the hospital that morning
The thing that always boggles my mind is that somehow people can do that and still end up missing a round in the magazine or chamber. Or at least think that they did it.
Is your arm cannon always loaded too? Lol, love the username.Â
But seriously, WTF. First thing I was taught in gun safety was how to make DAMN sure that thing was empty, then to never act like the damn thing is empty, even if you just made damn sure it was.
Its that shit right there that pisses me off! Its so easy to check and take precautions against. Check the chamber, after that, turn the safety on, after that block the firing mechanism, after all of that, still treat it like its loaded and make sure its never pointed at anyone! Thats just basic gun safety!
"Never handle firearms carelessly. The sorrow and suffering that have been caused through the innocent but heedless handling of firearms by the young! Only four days ago, right in the next farm house to the one where I am spending the summer, a grandmother, old and gray and sweet, one of the loveliest spirits in the land, was sitting at her work, when her young grandson crept in and got down an old, battered, rusty gun which had not been touched for many years and was supposed not to be loaded, and pointed it at her, laughing and threatening to shoot. In her fright she ran screaming and pleading toward the door on the other side of the room; but as she passed him he placed the gun almost against her very breast and pulled the trigger! He had supposed it was not loaded. And he was rightâit wasnât. So there wasnât any harm done. It is the only case of that kind I ever heard of. Therefore, just the same, donât you meddle with old unloaded firearms; they are the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been created by man. You donât have to take any pains at all with them; you donât have to have a rest, you donât have to have any sights on the gun, you donât have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him. A youth who canât hit a cathedral at thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three quarters of an hour, can take up an old empty musket and bag his grandmother every time, at a hundred. Think what Waterloo would have been if one of the armies had been boys armed with old muskets supposed not to be loaded, and the other army had been composed of their female relations. The very thought of it make one shudder."
--excerpted from Advice to Youth (1882) by Mark Twain
Guns wouldn't be an issue if people would just stop being stupid about them. I feel there is a middle ground somewhere between dangerously reckless and scared it might jump up and bite you. Unfortunately I see far too many of those extremes. I trust myself with a gun, but not many others.
Its like how car accidents happen... You can trust yourself, but there is always an idiot out there who thinks they run a red light safely, then it becomes a habit and BAM, someone is dead or gravely injured.
Lowest common denominator is not the most common denominator but they are just about enough to make people question if the problem is humans or the tool (its humans).
You would not believe the amount of accidental shootings I have made in 10 years on an ambulance due to people keeping loaded guns in the house. It's wildly unsafe
No children or spouses involved, so that massively cuts down the risk factor just in and of itself. Tiff not being in a heterosexual relationship further cuts down risk factors. Tiff being a trans woman further cuts down the risk factors.
Given Eve doesn't know about it despite having gone through Tiff's closet with her, no home invader is likely to find it without having had control over them and the home for long enough and completely enough that they'd be dead anyway if that was on the agenda.
All in all the risk seems about as minimal as could be.
Since Eve has never seen anything in Tiff's closet that resembles a rifle or a rifle case, it makes me think that this rifle has been disassembled and is stored in a regular box.
If you can, please don't stop at ownership. Get training for it too - not just how to maintain it and how to fire it, but things like emergency first aid, marksmanship courses, clearing jams, that kind of thing. Training is nearly as important as ownership, and sometimes even more important
My wife and I had this discussion too. I wouldnât mind having protection at the house but she doesnât feel comfortable having a firearm in our home at all.
Granted all this was before we had a kid (and now I donât think Iâd want a gun here either given the stats around toddlers and guns) but you have to discuss this with whoever you live with. Itâs important.
I wouldn't buy a gun because the Saturday night temptation might be too great one day. I'll go the Deus Ex route and get a pepper spray and an extendable baton.
Just being realistic, the SI rate for queer people is much much higher than it is for straight people. Having access to a handgun is what turns the highest number of attempts into completions. Feeling unsafe around a handgun is EXTREMELY valid and something anyone who worries about their inner thoughts should talk to loved ones about.
This is going to sound like an absurd follow up, but in boy scouts (where my gay awakening happened) we talked a lot about how a rifle is a tool while a handgun is a weapon. This comic is totally a thing that would happen between some couples.
The thing Iâm finding interesting about most of the comments here is that the focus is on the dangers of having a gun in the home
But in nearly all comments there is an implicit assumption that carrying a gun makes you safer outside of the home. And Iâve yet to see really convincing statistics that this is in fact true. My understanding is that generally speaking defensive gun use is incredibly rare, and when defensive gun use actually happens, it can escalate a situation and actually put you in even more damage than before. And thereâs the issue of even if youâve trained to use your gun, will you react properly and justifiably when faced with real danger ?
Iâm a trans woman in Canada, so my life and safety arenât under the same level as threat as my trans siblings to the south, and I donât have the same cultural forces around gun ownership. And I know that âsafetyâ is rarely about how safe or unsafe we actually are, but rather itâs an emotional feeling about how safe we feel. So a gun can be powerful in that regard, and I would understand why someone whoâs life and rights are under constant threat in Tiff would be allured by the feeling of safety a gun offers.
Iâm just not convinced it actually makes you safer.
In my opinion, if someone wants to hurt you, they're not going to play fair. Someone who legit wants to hurt and/or kill you, is not going to walk up to you and tell you that. They'll attack you while your back is turned, they'll run you over with their car, they'll pull their gun on your first.
I also think that if you're in a group that gets regularly persecuted, having a gun on you makes all the bigots feel suddenly justified in killing you...
As an American, it absolutely doesn't. Literally every study that's ever been done on gun ownership and personal safety has shown that owning a gun just leads people to end up in more situations where they'd use it
Attempts to use the law (or make laws) to disarm people who whomever is in power doesnt like are a longstanding problem.
Things do change, Here in NC for example we had what was called a "Pistol Purchase Permit".
It was required before one purchased or received a handgun.
The funny thing is it was basically the exact same thing as a standard background check, except one specific thing: the issuing Sheriff could deny you. For ANY reason at all. And I mean ANNNNY.
Funny enough, it came about that only people the Sheriff didnt like were left without.
We got rid of them a few years ago. Now we simply do the same background checks, without someone being able to decide whether or not you even get to have one.
Owning a gun increases your likelihood of death. Largely through a significantly increased chance of killing yourself, but also because having a gun on your person escalates non-lethal situations into lethal ones. If you want to protect yourself, sell the murder weapon in your house.
My girlfriend and I have had this conversation. Though I was clear to talk with her before we moved in together.
I explained it was just for recreational target shooting from nearly ten hears ago, and its left its locked case maybe 3 times since i moved out from my parents place, and it wasnât even used then.w
Weâve had the conversation on what if we needed it for self protection. Especially with everything going on. Right now weâre settled enough with a baseball bat and a sword should anyone try and force entry to our bedroom. Weâre fortunate to not be in a super targeted area, but id be lying if i said i wasnât tempted to get myself familiar with it again incase our area gets targeted again.
hijacking a smol corner of this thread to say if any queer folk are in the northern colorado area wanna learn or practice usage/handling/safety, thereâs a thembo âround these parts that can help :3
Ok, at the risk of getting Downvotes for this (please, bear with me, I do not intent any offense, I am just curious about the reasoning): What is wrong with having a gun?
I live in Germany, where the rules and regulations concerning firearms are ridiculously strong. I had to go through a LOT of red tape, but I am cleared and certified for owning firearms and I do own a few. It doesn't define me and I purely use them for competition target shooting. As long as they are kept properly (in my case unloaded and locked in a safe only I know the combination for), they are an inert chunk of steel. I mean, I get that some people who don't know better or who had bad experiences with them would not feel good around them, but other than that I just can't figure. Like, do people really break up over this? Over sporting goods locked in a steel box (assuming the owner is a responsible person)?
The firearm culture in the US doesn't have the same sport first connotations, and the regulations are much weaker leading to a lot more incidents. This leads to people having experience of knowing people involved in such incidents and makes people uncomfortable with the presence of firearms in the home.
The U.S. political environment around guns is very.... Let's just say people argue a lot. And people more on the left leaning side of things tend to be or at least are stereotyped to be inherently against guns as the hyper lethal tools only for killing and immensely dangerous. Which is true to an extent. But people who live in more rural areas use them for hunting to supplement food and self defense against wild animals such as snakes and coyotes where I'm from. And the U.S. has an issue with mass violent crime typically perpetrated through guns. But also at the same time she keeps pulling out a giant ass mallet to beat the shit out of people which would be just as lethal as any gun but that gets cartoonified. so it's like... Complicated.
When guns are more associated with school children being shot than practice targets, it tends to be hard to see them as simple, inert hunks of steel. As others have said, guns are very polerizing in the US
Part of me wants to get a gun, but I'm not sure it's a great idea with how depressed I can get.
Tbh, your options for self-defence are kinda limited in the UK, I have a hammer and a kitchen knife at home, but you can't really take them out with you.
(Largely unrelated but our Airport customs have a list of banned weapon types and it refers to metal throwing stars as "death stars". I've always enjoyed the visual of someone responding to a mugging by blowing up the planet).
One of my daughters wanted to learn to shoot, so I said, "Sure," and booked us some time at the local target range.
And on the day of, I dug my big-ass locked chest of guns out of the pile of crap it was under in the garage, unlocked it, pulled two locked pistol cases out of it, and turned around to find my daughter goggling at me, at which point I realized that this had been some kind of attempt on her part to troll me, and I'd inadvertently flipped it.
I'm not anti-gun, but they're a tool, not a lifestyle.
Be sure to get a gun safe. Keep magazines out loaded or unloaded. And get a gun lock which goes through the gun to keep it open and magazines out.
I have a gun safe and a seperate lock. Oh and if you are flying in America depending on state, get a gun carryinf case with locks too. TSA cannot touch those or have skeleton universal keys to them in case you need to also transport jewlrey or something.
I don't know if I can show mine because reddit rules but don't be irresponsible gun owner like one of the people I used to work for. He once took out a gun with magazine in it and pointed it at staff members in front of me to brag. He was never arrested for that đ.
I've seriously considered it, but the mental health history in my household means it's a potentially very bad idea. We're all doing well right now, but...
1.4k
u/CrazyGnomenclature Tiff & Eve 25d ago
Thatâs whatcha call a whoopsie-doodle
More Tiff & Eve on My Site | Webtoon
Check out on Patreon