Now THAT’S a shower thought. I can’t think of a single athlete that’s crossed over so many decades.

And of course lemmy is spitting, hissing mad.

I was a teen in the 80s, a young adult in the 90s, and overall, America was pretty fucking nice, especially the Clinton years. With the benefit of hindsight you can say we should have fought for X, Y and Z, but we weren’t at war, starving or overrun by fascists. Was a 20-something young man to have foreseen today’s disastrous climate? I was partying and getting laid.

And I have never once in this heard of this, “working in the shadows” bullshit. None of us talk that way, never have, we embraced being disconnected slackers.

If ICE comes, I have no plans to escape alive. Take that as you will.

In America, in most cases, they can’t cross the door frame and can’t touch you unless you cross outside. ’

And if masked men kick the door down? I got that covered best I know how.

You can, just not at the same company. You just have to hop jobs as soon as you get experience.

Safety doesn’t matter here. Streets aren’t an option for OP. Anyway, we already got the best possible reply in this thread.

OP’s disabled and unemployed. Please don’t be facile.

Cops are swamped with this kinda thing. If they don’t see the crime, such as the brother’s assault outlined above, and the victims won’t talk or press charges, then it’s “he said, she said”, useless to pursue. BUT, they can take a report.

There’s been more than once in my life where the cops later asked, “Why didn’t you call us?!” Having said that, for many reasons I hesitate to involve police unless uncontrollable violence is going down in the moment.

Sad, ain’t it? I repair all kinds of stuff. Have a 50" TV that only needs a new board when I can afford it. The 55" on my wall needed 2 new capacitors, $8 on eBay.

Book changed my life in college, but for reasons lemmy will hate.

Never had a shred of work ethic. Reading that book stunned me. “If this man can persevere through that, why am I such a wuss?”

Worked hard at every job since, moved up if there was the opportunity to do so. I soon realized that if you kick ass at your job, you can write your own ticket. Even if it’s not much more money, or a fat promotion, the least you get is a better schedule, acceptance of fuck ups, or whatever it is you want out of the place.

Gain skills and experience, quit, acquire new job, rinse and repeat.

When we moved to Florida 20-years ago, my two friends and I had no family, no jobs, no other friends. One guy started at an oil change place, way below his skill set. He’d work at a place for 6-months or a year, quit when they quit giving him more money, got a better job, rinse and repeat. He finally chilled after 10-years or so and settled into a job as a service manager for a major car dealership, $100K+, probably $150K today.

Copy/paste reply for you smug assholes:

I’m far more heavily armed than most. I could outfit my entire block, though they’re already armed; young, old, liberal, MAGA. Yes, even the little old black lady across the street.

What the fuck do you want me to do? I’m sick of these smartass posts. Give me fucking instructions and be clear or STFU.

Fuck me. Saw what looked like an ICE thing in Alabama today, put my Colt .45 under my leg while trying to get my immigrant wife the hell back to Florida. There’s a 12-gauge pump leaning on my desk 24x7 and the AR-15 leans on my nightstand. Being that there’s no ICE around here, want me to hunt some down a couple of states away? Be clear in your instructions.

I now lock my doors, have a gun in reach everywhere I go and live in fear. And you assholes, “LOL! Where my 2A boys at?”

Haven’t looked at numbers for 4-5 years, and holy shit did it flip around 2022-2023. Last I saw was 43-48%.

Anyone want to see for themselves, this is a solid search:

“cdc gun deaths”

Plenty of data from solid sources to back treesquid. Thanks for getting me up to date! I was quite ignorant.

The reply was not on your ass! We all good!

But it’s a solid reply to the poster above.

You are going to LOVE this one.

And yeah, everyone on my block has a gun. Well-off, poor, black, white, old, young, liberal, MAGA, everyone. (It’s quite a diverse block!) No ICE around here, not even in this region.

I am in dread of watching the noose tighten. They’ll be here soon enough.

Do so before it’s too late to have that option. But it takes lots of time and money (ammo) to get the practice in. There’s a reason LGBT, minorities and women have been the top first-time buyers for years now.

But please, please god, start leaning now. There is so much more to unpack that most people know, and that includes current gun owners.

I highly recommend Paul Harrell’s videos (RIP). He’s rather dry, with dry humor, but he’s more expert than anyone I’ve seen. He starts with a question. What about this? He tests it, shows results, discusses how fair the test was, with zero judgment. His videos are a masterclass on how to present a topic and how to setup simple experiments and draw conclusions. He is a teacher above all else.

Here’s one perfectly suited for you!

Top Ten Tips for Pandemic Gun Buyers

Here’s one my conceal carry instructor taught about, and I’ve seen it play in my own life:

If you have a machine in your pocket or pants that is capable of taking a human life, you think and act differently. You’re more situationally aware, because you don’t want to stumble into a situation where you have to use the fucking thing. A concrete and steel box may be the next place you find yourself. Forever.

I lack the words to put the reader in that emotional state, but it’s real. Not like you’re paranoid, constantly on the lookout, but you are more aware. Used to put myself into crazy situations when I was younger, got stories all night long, but now I’m way more chill.

In the past, I have been threatened with violence, many times, from the homeless downtown.

Unarmed me: “FUCK YOU!”

Armed me: I’m out, not a word. More to the point, I wouldn’t be anywhere near that situation in the first place.

“But you can peace out without a gun!”

Very true, I’ll grant that. But having one makes me more aware of what’s going on around me, makes me less threatening. The vast majority of us are exactly like this. If you watch GunTubers, you will find none of them talking the way we’re made out in social media, drooling for violence. Most of the “give me an excuse” people are already in jail or dead. It’s a Darwinian thing.

The stories you hear on the news are outliers, or they wouldn’t be news. (That applies to everything else in life.)

I’ll only add this: Almost everyone in America is woefully ignorant of self-defense laws. Cops are the only shooters that can kill with impunity. You cannot, almost no matter how justified you think you are. Concrete and steel box.

Anyway, I’m sure a European from a healthy society will be right along to lecture me on how nuts I am.

Good for you. I’m American and our culture is sick to the roots. It’s not the number of guns per capita, it’s the sick people.

The latter thought is how most of us gun nuts think, despite the crazy news stories you hear.

Rabid animals, though far more rare than most think, are why I’m always armed in the boondocks. I know, you shouldn’t splatter their blood, but if it’s me or them…

Shit like this never makes the news because it’s boring and you can’t prove it. Anyway, since Trump 1.0 I won’t set foot outdoors without being armed and since Trump 2.0, there’s never a gun I can’t reach.

If it was just me, not such a big deal for a middle-aged white guy. But my wife is a brown, legal immigrant. Let’s say I have drawn a line at what my life is worth.