Washington How Seattle Leftists Learned to Love the Gun

[Joe Link]

The Southern Poverty Law Center catalogued over 1,000 bias-related incidents in the month following the election of Donald Trump. Since then, a climate of perpetual peril has settled over the nation. Here in Seattle, we've seen a synagogue defaced with the words "The Holocaust is fake history," an Islamophobic "anti-Sharia" march in the heart of the city, and a protester shot outside an appearance by anti-trans "free speech" advocate Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of Washington. White-nationalist flyers have been spotted across the city, and even in the ostensibly queer-friendly confines of Capitol Hill transphobic and homophobic street violence occurs with alarming regularity. Those most impacted—the queer community and people of color—are re-evaluating an already fragile sense of safety, which includes re-evaluating their stance on guns.

Steven Sawada is a leftist activist and third-generation Japanese American who bought his first gun in the run-up to the 2016 election. He bought another one after Trump won. Since then he's been taking fellow leftists and people of color on monthly outings to the shooting range in an attempt to build a sense of collective strength around the feelings of threat engendered by the Trump regime. It's not a programmatic, organized initiative, but a face-to-face effort to empower and educate people in his personal network of friends and fellow travelers. And it's not an endeavor he undertakes lightly.

How Seattle Leftists Learned to Love the Gun | Seattle Weekly

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[Wayne]

If you like to read fiction you need to read the whole article, as I sit here shaking my head and asking myself, where in the world do these people come from ?

 

[MilitantBEEMER]

Wow these people really are wackos....

"My wife and I have had deep conversations about this. She's against them, and she very astutely pointed out that gun violence disproportionately falls on women. I agree with that," Sawada says. "This feeling of insecurity and my response to it is part of the patriarchal system."

WTF!!!

 

[UserNameInUse]

People will start getting shot for driving a pickup truck instead of a Prius.

 

[The Heretic]

People will start getting shot for driving a pickup truck instead of a Prius.

It is interesting that when the left talks about violence they point to the far far "alt-right"/etc. (which has its share of wackos and violence) but do not mention anything about the riots and violence that the left has participated in, or about their rhetoric of violence. They are silent in that respect, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to it most of the time, and when confronted with it, then try to say it is justified as defensive.

As a Libertarian, I deplore the violence of both sides, asserting violence should only be used in defense. In general, when there is violence from the far right, it is usually a wacko individual, when it is from the left, it is mobs.

The latter scare me a lot more - the chances that I will encounter violence from an individual is much smaller than that from a mob when I work near downtown PDX.

 

[MasterChief]

 

[Sgt Nambu]

What a bunch of sweetie pies!

 

[GOG]

I'm gobsmacked. That's some of the most insane, PC, socially self conscious BS I have ever encountered.

If the left weren't so maladjusted and evil they would be hilarious.

 

[cigars]

People will start getting shot for driving a pickup truck instead of a Prius.

Its already one level below that. In Portland. If you park your car and it has a Trump or Bush bumper sticker on it, expect to find some sort of vandalism done to it when you return. However I think the majority of these lefty yahoos are so afraid of the word "gun" that it likely won't get to the next level. Hopefully not anyway, but it only takes one.
(Edited my spell chek-ur)

 

[wired]

I don't deplore violence. Its an ancient and sometimes necessary means of expression and control. If leftists are feeling targeted then good for them for learning about the other amendments to the US Constitution. Maybe its a habit they'll learn they cannot live without.

 

[Hop Sing]

However I think the majority of these lefty yahoos are so afraid of the word "gun" that it likely won't get to the next level. Hopefully not anyway, but it only takes one.

It's my understanding that firearms are the newest fad for lefties. I don't know any as I don't go to Portland - just picking this info off off various web sites.

 

[awshoot]

I'm a lefty from a lefty family and I've also been around firearms my entire life. In a lot of ways, it seems a little Constitutionally incorrect (I think that is the most diplomatic way to put it) to suggest that certain people should not have firearms. Everyone should have the same rights and opportunities under our Constitution.

Ideological opponents always think the other side is made up of freaks, losers, and whack-jobs. The people in the article referenced certainly think that about some of you (and me - maybe even more so because I'm traitor to their side), just as you do toward them. And everyone is free to think that -- just don't trample anyone's rights in the process.

Anyway, I see it as a positive sign for gun rights -- if those most inclined to restrict guns become gun owners, the 2nd Amendment ultimately wins.

 

[Squidly]

I'm a lefty from a lefty family and I've also been around firearms my entire life. In a lot of ways, it seems a little Constitutionally incorrect (I think that is the most diplomatic way to put it) to suggest that certain people should not have firearms. Everyone should have the same rights and opportunities under our Constitution.

Ideological opponents always think the other side is made up of freaks, losers, and whack-jobs. The people in the article referenced certainly think that about some of you (and me - maybe even more so because I'm traitor to their side), just as you do toward them. And everyone is free to think that -- just don't trample anyone's rights in the process.

Anyway, I see it as a positive sign for gun rights -- if those most inclined to restrict guns become gun owners, the 2nd Amendment ultimately wins.

I don't really identify with either side, but I will take sides with those who take the Constitution seriously. The choices are slim, and sometimes you have to take what you can get... In all, I agree that if more lefties valued the natural right to bear arms, we would have much less to fight over.

 

[STUKA]

I don't really identify with either side, but I will take sides with those who take the Constitution seriously. The choices are slim, and sometimes you have to take what you can get... In all, I agree that if more lefties valued the natural right to bear arms, we would have much less to fight over.

Best post I've read in awhile.

 

[cigars]

I'm a lefty from a lefty family and I've also been around firearms my entire life. In a lot of ways, it seems a little Constitutionally incorrect (I think that is the most diplomatic way to put it) to suggest that certain people should not have firearms. Everyone should have the same rights and opportunities under our Constitution.

Ideological opponents always think the other side is made up of freaks, losers, and whack-jobs. The people in the article referenced certainly think that about some of you (and me - maybe even more so because I'm traitor to their side), just as you do toward them. And everyone is free to think that -- just don't trample anyone's rights in the process.

Anyway, I see it as a positive sign for gun rights -- if those most inclined to restrict guns become gun owners, the 2nd Amendment ultimately wins.

So an armed society is a polite society then? I'm good with that.

 

[Flymph]

I don't deplore violence. Its an ancient and sometimes necessary means of expression and control. If leftists are feeling targeted then good for them for learning about the other amendments to the US Constitution. Maybe its a habit they'll learn they cannot live without.

Right on!
I can't say I'm not exploiting my liberal buddies' fear of the trump administration and alt-right-extremists new found emboldening to advocate to them our gun rights... but hey, at least they're opening up to guns.
What's funny is that some people think I'm a republican because I support free reasonable restriction to guns (aka felons and psychopaths are reasonably restricted from legal access).
I also don't vote democrat.
I'm so far left, I'm right! lol

 

[PaulB47]

"empower" That is a word that just sounds stupid. If you have to be "empowered", you probably don't really have any.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

What a strange article.
I do like hearing of new gun owners ... But I dislike hearing about fear being a motive when buying a gun.
Being fearful can make one do dangerous and irrational acts.

One does not become less fearful because one has a gun ... One becomes less fearful because one understands and learns to control ones environment.

I do hope the new gun owners in the article learn to use their gun safely and proficiently.
Otherwise they have only taken a unsupported step in learning to control their environment.
Andy

 

[3MTA3]

What a strange article.
I do like hearing of new gun owners ... But I dislike hearing about fear being a motive when buying a gun.
Being fearful can make one do dangerous and irrational acts.

One does not become less fearful because one has a gun ... One becomes less fearful because one understands and learns to control ones environment.

I do hope the new gun owners in the article learn to use their gun safely and proficiently.
Otherwise they have only taken a unsupported step in learning to control their environment.
Andy

Maybe they will meet us at the range and we find out that neither is the caricature we each think the other one is.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Maybe they will meet us at the range and we find out that neither is the caricature we each think the other one is.

That would be a good day indeed...
Andy