Communities around the U.S. have seen shootings carried out with weapons converted to fully automatic in recent years, fueled by a staggering increase in small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online. Laws against machine guns date back to the bloody violence of Prohibition-era gangsters. But the proliferation of devices known by nicknames such as Glock switches, auto sears and chips has allowed people to transform legal semi-automatic weapons into even more dangerous guns, helping fuel gun violence, police and federal authorities said.
The (ATF) reported a 570% increase in the number of conversion devices collected by police departments between 2017 and 2021, the most recent data available.
The devices that can convert legal semi-automatic weapons can be made on a 3D printer in about 35 minutes or ordered from overseas online for less than $30. They’re also quick to install.
“It takes two or three seconds to put in some of these devices into a firearm to make that firearm into a machine gun instantly,” Dettelbach said.
So… What’s your plan for any of those scenarios where someone wants more than just to run off with your phone/wallet/car?
(Keeping in mind the that cops have zero obligation to stop a crime in progress if there’s any potential risk to them, leading to scenarios like this: https://youtu.be/jAfUI_hETy0 )
Edit: to be clear I’m NOT denying any of what you said, just want to know “and then what” from a person who so passionately tries to convince others that the idea of armed self defense is wrong and not worth considering.
I’m not the person you’re replying to, but: there are defense tools that are simultaneously less lethal than firearms, while actually more effective than firearms for self defense.
Elaborate, please.
There are lots of situations where fire arms aren’t good for defense.
They need to be aimed.
They need to be loaded.
They are not allowed in some places/They have specific transportation requirements which preclude them from bring brought to some places.
They can kill/ grievously wound uninvolved people.
They aren’t effective for summoning help.
Someone wielding one in self defense can be reasonably misidentified as an aggressor.
Not every defence device has these deficiencies.
Can you name viable alternatives, and what’s your personal plan?
Copying my reply to someone else because much of it is relevant here too.
I didn’t mean to suggest that there was something without any of those drawbacks, so I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear about that.
I’m not going to propose a one size fits all solution.
But I think people should consider the situations they are most likely to find themselves in, and make considered decisions.
I don’t think guns are likely to be the best choice very often.
I’m not that interested in discussing what I do personally for safety, because every situation is unique.
My question is for someone passionately arguing against keeping a gun for self defense, with the implication being it’s law, and so regardless of training and care and personal circumstances.
The pro-gun crowd doesn’t just blanket recommend guns for everyone in every situation either, so my question is specifically about how those worst case defensive scenarios are envisioned by people who eschew the idea of personally owning guns.
I live in Canada, it’s illegal in Canada to carry anything outside your home for the purposes of defense against humans. (But if you have something with you for a different reason you’re allowed to use it). This makes my personal preparations somewhat irrelevant to Americans.
That’s not really me. However, I do think that guns aren’t a very good defense investment. I think a lot of other, more practical, preparations get overlooked because guns are fun.
I have a colleague that lives in Buffalo NY. When the pandemic hit, he and his wife bought 10 guns. When I spoke with him in 2023 they had never fired any of them.
What you’re saying about blanket recommendations is not really true. My boss, a real actual person that I respect (for other reasons), believes that every adult in the country ought to own a gun.
But again, I’m not who you’re looking to engage, I’m not opposed to the idea of personally owning a gun.
So which do you propose?
Pepper spray can deal permanent damage to one’s sight and sense of smell, and affects everyone nearby.
A shocker can kill a person with heart problems.
A traumatic pistol may just not be enough, it’s like a device to punch a person in effect.
A knife requires training and won’t help against a stronger attacker likely.
I didn’t mean to suggest that there was something without any of those drawbacks, so I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear about that.
I’m not going to propose a one size fits all solution.
But I think people should consider the situations they are most likely to find themselves in, and make considered decisions.
I don’t think guns are likely to be the best choice very often.
Probably not shoot them in the back, I’d imagine? If I hit them, then that’s some poor fucker who might be dead cause of me, and if they’re robbing me I’d expect them to not have medical coverage so secondary effects might also fuck them over even harder. It’s easier for me to just take the L on my phone, wallet, or, I guess car? But I’m kinda not seeing carjacking that I might notice as much. In any case, it’s easier for me to just use my car insurance, if they happen to destroy my car or it becomes unrecoverable, goes to a chop shop, what have you, it’s easier for me to get a new government ID, and freeze my credit card and get a new one, and buy a new cheap-ass phone. And maybe be out the 20 bucks in my wallet, which is why you shouldn’t carry large amounts of cash.
It’s much easier for me to just, confront the problem through these secondary inconveniences that it causes me, rather than trying to like, “pull a hero”, and shoot someone in the back. I’m not particularly educated on the intricacies of state-by-state self defense law, either, right, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it was unjustified to shoot someone in the back.
I’m also not totally unconvinced of the idea of armed self-defense, right, it can be totally viable in certain situations.
Say, someone is robbing a store with a gun, and their attention is on the cashier, and not on you, or, say, you’re outside, right. Now you’re totally free to pull your firearm and engage your off-duty brazilian police officer fantasy, for sure. That’s, debatably, a useful scenario for a gun. Maybe a more useful scenario might be an in-progress rape, or assault, or something to that effect, though I’d imagine that most gun owners would not be proficient enough with their weapon to cleanly hit one person wrestling or engaged with another person at any more significant distance, and maybe at close distances depending on the shooter and how engaged the two people are. That’s on the shooter, though, that’s why regular training is necessary (even better if it’s baked in as a requirement of ownership, as I said). I think in these cases it’s probably somewhat likely that even the presence of the gun itself could serve to dissuade further engagement, which is a valuable function for it to serve beyond shooting.
So basically, for property crime, it’s easier to just deal with the property crime as it has occurred, since usually nobody’s been hurt. With interpersonal violent crime, it’s still a very highly contextually dependent solution, rather than a kind of, one-size-fits-all solution that everyone makes it out to be.
I would say, if people are super concerned about self-defense, they’d probably want to take some first aid classes, they’d probably want good cardio, they’d probably want to carry pepper spray and maybe more easily know where medical supplies are located, or otherwise have some easily accessible to them within about a minute. They also might want to take some sort of martial arts class, which might also be good for their cardio, and good for fitness in general. Knives are not a good idea, since they remain dangerous and unpredictable, even with training, and guns aren’t all that useful in a grappling scenario (and could also potentially injure you), or when you’ve not seen them coming. I could be persuaded on the position of a taser.
I’m also not going to discount the idea that someone might get a gun and still brandish it as a form of intimidation, illegally, in order to accomplish other goals, right, the law isn’t, total morality, it’s just not a good idea to do for the vast majority of people. I think the black panthers standing outside the california state capitol is an effective form of protest, and is especially effective given their smaller numbers. It’s more efficient, in some ways, than a mass march.
I can also imagine scenarios where people live in circumstances where the police and law won’t help them (lots of people), and would probably find it necessary to stay strapped up, if for nothing else than the fact that it’s kind of just another minor tool at their disposal. I dunno, there’s maybe something to be said there of possession of a gun, again, marking you as a threat, not only to criminals, but to police, but I’ve also seen lots of body cam footage where police just shoot a guy regardless. Because of an acorn, maybe. So, I’m not sure it matters too much.
Basically my problem with guns is that they rely too much on the ability of the end user to correctly discern the situation at hand before they begin to use them. Oh, is this person about to stab me, pull a gun on me, whatever? It’s usually pretty much impossible to know. If it’s impossible to know, it’s usually not a good idea to pull a gun on someone, and it’s usually a much, much worse idea to shoot someone. You’ve just shortcutted the logical chain of events, there, right? Like the guy in the video says, there are plenty of instances where crazy drugged up homeless people on the new york subway walk around screaming obscenities, even saying stuff like “you’re going to die”, and shit like that, and they never do anything at all. Certainly, me personally, I find it to be a more moral position, getting stabbed to death, or getting hospitalized and treated by my shitty medical provider, rather than choke, maybe more probably, strangle, someone to death, because they were making a ruckus.