I wholeheartedly agree, to a point. I don’t think it’s good to stipulate a “need”, and I have no problem with gun ownership being normalized, but you hit the nail on the head with the lack of seriousness. As darkly hilarious as it is, the fact that I’ve visited someone’s home where they literally just had a loaded handgun in a fruit bowl on the kitchen table was frankly disgusting to me, and certainly highlights how many people will buy a firearm but just really don’t understand the responsibility, and it gives a lot of responsible gun owners a really bad image.

I make it a huge point to take people shooting, show them how to handle firearms responsibly, and try to get some education out there so they can not only handle themselves, but potentially call out irresponsible firearms behavior they may see and teach others.

Gun buying is not really the issue, it’s people getting unauthorized access to firearms from people who did go through the process of buying them legitimately. Stealing a gun from a family member who leaves them in the glove box of their truck, or in an unlocked case under the bed is much easier than trying to do a straw purchase.

Or, just target the thing that is used in over 60% of gun crimes, and focus on handguns rather than sporting rifles. They’re way easier to steal and conceal, easier to accidentally drop/leave somewhere where unauthorized people (i.e. kids) can access them, and from the perspective of the very pro-2A side, are far less useful against tyrannical state actors.

Just like cable!

This is also what a lot of people forget how it was at the time, thinking “if only” they had been early adopters and how they’d be millionaires. I was one, and had found it was great for traveling said “trade route”, but also watched when Mt Gox collapsed and tanked the price 75% while stealing millions from people, and decided to take my winnings and leave the table.

How many people would see that shit and be like “Yes, I’m going to hold onto this for the next 10 years when it’s worth something” and then sit through the number of 50+% loss events that happened?

You would have done exactly what 99% of early adopters did, and considered yourself incredibly lucky that you managed to make 1000% returns and sold.