Today's Marches Will Illustrate an Important Fact

[MineralMan]

Owning firearms is about power. It's about a feeling of power. A very sizable percentage of adult males, especially older adult males, feel powerless in society. They're powerless at their places of employment. They're powerless in the face of so many who are not them. Most are even powerless within their own families. They feel as though the world is falling apart and that they are powerless to change that.

Firearms, especially military style firearms, are powerful. They can kill. Owning them provides some people with the feeling of being powerful. Armed with their firearms, they can temporarily shed their feelings of powerlessness. They become invincible in their own minds. Owning one is good, owning many is better. More guns symbolize more power.

That's why so many men own multiple firearms. They buy one, and get that sense of power. So, they buy more. They accessorize those tools of power. They buy clothing and gear that resembles that used by the military. All to gain a sense of power to fight back against their powerlessness.

Armed, they have less daily fear. Fear of the government. Fear of people who look or act differently than they do. Fear of those who have different lifestyles and political beliefs. They are armed out of fear. They can fight off those people. Of course, they don't have to do that, but they fear that they might. Fear of being weak and powerless. A firearm or multiple firearms damps that fear down.

So does association with others who have the same fears and who also think firearms are the answer. In groups, while armed, they can clearly see that others fear them and their firearms. Individually they do not march with guns. As groups, they do, clothed in their quasi-military gear and bolstered by those around them.

Fear. Feelings of powerlessness. Those are the reasons men arm themselves and accrue entire arsenals of weapons and ammunition. Never mind that they can only use one firearm at a time. Never mind the cost. Never mind anything. Allaying their fear and sense of weakness is the goal, and firearms achieve that goal to a certain degree.

Today's marches will make them fear even more. Children and young people will be marching, supported by many adults. They will not be armed, but they will inspire fear in men who arm themselves to quell their fears. The firearms owning men will not show up today. They are outnumbered enormously. But they will watch. They will be fearful. They will look to their arms to calm those fears. They may even acquire more of them.

Such men are dangerous.

[dlk]

1. Yes, They are Very Dangerous to Us All

[MineralMan]

2. We outnumber them. Vastly. We can control this situation, if we will.

But, we will have to trek to the polls in record numbers, even in mid-term elections. We can overpower them, but only if we energize ourselves to do so. We must take control of our own government and disarm these dangerous people in a way that does not energize them to actually use their arms to fight us.

We just need to elect people who are not such dangerous people and who are not afraid of them and their organizations. They are the minority. We are the majority. We need to act as a majority at the polling places. We could turn this around, if we choose to do so.

I suggest we do that.

[Marengo]

6. Who, exactly, should be disarmed? Would would be the criteria for disarmament?

[MineralMan]

8. That is not my point. My point is to elect legislative majorities

who are not aligned with NRA goals. Once we do that, then we can address the problems from a position of strength.

My opinion about who should be disarmed and what weapons should be prohibited are irrelevant to this need.

I can help elect people who are free from NRA influence. They can determine what the right approach to firearms control will be.

There are many options available. The point is to take control away from those who kowtow to the NRA. We can do that. We have the numbers. All we have to do is activate people to vote. That's my immediate goal.

[Marengo]

28. Nonsense, you specifically stated these dangerous people need to be disarmed. Im asking you to

Clarify who you consider dangerous.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Great stuff MM ...

I would've said 'this mentality is often a warning sign that a person may eventually end up becoming dangerous to themselves or others' rather than the broad-stroke that ALL who own a bunch of guns are literally dangerous, as in, right now. JMHO. Everything else I agree with though

[MineralMan]

15. My post was very specific about types of firearms and

types of people. It did not even address confiscation of firearms. That's another issue altogether.

[Marengo]

4. Any man who owns more than one firearm should be considered dangerous?

[MineralMan]

9. I didn't say that. I said that people who own multiple

military-style firearms are dangerous because they feel powerless and acquire firearms to feel powerful. I own firearms, but none of them are in anyway military in nature or intent. I'm not fearful. I don't have them with any intent of using them against people.

[Marengo]

23. You repeatedly used the general term firearms, and the descriptor of military style only once.

As it’s written, you post is easily interpreted in the way indicated by my question. You didn’t state military style exclusively, but inclusively (by the the of “especially”) as a category within the population that possess more than one firearm. Furthermore, you suggested that possessing more than one type of firearm is pointless as only one can be used at a time and then admit you have more than one yourself. How many do you have? More to the point, how many do you need, and what is your need? What types do you possess?

[blake2012]

5. They will look for any excuse to buy more

These marches show the power of young people uniting to change the agenda.

These fearful Gun hoarders are dwindling breed.

[MineralMan]

11. Exactly. They are outnumbered and vastly so.

The problem is getting people to become active and vote for legislators who are not under the sway of the NRA and other groups. If we can do that, we can enact specific control laws that will change this.

[Lurker Deluxe]

7. This is the problem

You have just grouped me ... with them.

I am "powerless"? Should I be "disarmed"?

I own guns, more than one, they have different uses. I do not carry a gun, actually other than shooting a snake a year back I have not fired a gun in years.

I used to, all the time. My friends and I used to go to the range and shoot trap and skeet fairly regularly. We used to bird hunt and it takes practice to hit them. Used to deer hunt, so we would go to the same range and target shoot ... again, takes practice to hit anything.

I quit hunting years ago, most likely around the time I bought a sailboat. These things take time, and I spend it mostly on the boat, more working on the dumb thing than anything else. But why should I give up my weapons? Most of them have sentimental meaning to me because of their origin and the others are simply practical for their designed purpose.

By suggesting that people like me need to be "disarmed" you have lost any support you could otherwise get by suggesting reasonable changes to current laws.

[MineralMan]

14. No, I haven't grouped you with them.

I was very specific about the type of firearms I'm talking about. Did you miss that? I'm also a firearms owner. I have zero military-style firearms. I have no "tactical" clothing and accessories. I don't have multiple AR-15 type rifles.

I have no desire to see your firearms confiscated, and don't see anything in my post that even suggests that. Read it again, please, and think about what I actually wrote.

[Marengo]

24. No, you were not. That isnt clear at all in your OP. Quite the opposite actually.

[Hortensis]

10. I love this huge, totally unexpected wrench thrown in

the well-greased wheels of the gun industry, NRA, Republican politicians.

For sure, they never saw THIS one coming. Interesting to see what they do next.

COUNTDOWN TO MIDTERMS: 226 days

[MineralMan]

13. Yes. We need to begin now to motivate people to vote in November.

As with everything else that matters, GOTV is the answer. We can sweep the nation and our own states with legislative wins that change who is in control. That's what we must do. It is the only thing that can accomplish our goals.

Why everyone is not focused on that single, doable thing I will never understand.

[Hortensis]

17. Yes! Noticed March for Our Lives site has a registration function.

Wish all these students who turned out could vote next November, but those who can will.

In 2016, young adults surprisingly didn't turn out much more than in their typically lower numbers. Hopefully, this year will mark a big change for them also. 5% would be a revolution.

[MineralMan]

21. I'm hoping for more than a 5% increase.

Much more. If we can activate the younger voters dramatically, they can change politics forever. I just wish they knew that. Perhaps this year, they'll realize it and make that change.

I hope so, anyhow. Still, as a 72 year old geezer, I'm not that influential with that demographic.

[Hortensis]

22. Oh, yes. That 5% came from a political statistician

several years ago who explained what just a 5% increase in Democratic young vote across the nation would mean for that election. It was truly remarkable.

It it had occurred before then, there would never been a second Iraq war. But by now these high school students in Florida and others would still be alive. No Trump of course. An end to packing courts with ultraconservative judges. Healthcare for all, affordable and/or free college, a living wage for a full day's work, on and on.

[XRubicon]

12. Exactly this.

[bdamomma]

16. I heard

this stat last night, there are 78% of people who don't have a gun. Only 3% have guns. 3%????

[Hortensis]

18. I think the claim is that 3% own HALF the guns.

[bdamomma]

19. yes yes

nt

[Hortensis]

20. Interesting notion-blowing figures.

[oberliner]

27. 30 percent of Americans own guns

According to this pew survey:

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/

[oberliner]

25. About 40 percent of gun owners in America are women

[Mariana]

29. My mother is one of them.

Why? Because my father is one of those men MineralMan described. He told her she needed a gun and a carry permit, he signed her up for the class, he took her to apply for the permit, and he took her to the gun shop and had her pick out a gun of her very own. So, she's a gun owner and she has a carry permit.

[spanone]

26. K&R...

[Yavin4]

31. One could buy a gun or address their powerlessness directly.

Join a union. Vote your economic interests above your racial/gender fears. Demand better education, better jobs, a fairer distribution of wealth, better healthcare.

Doing these things addresses feelings of powerlessness better than owning a million firearms.