Notices by Astrid (Certified Serverless Maid) (astrid@woem.space)

are we seriously having “buy a gun” discourse

look. even as a certified gun nut, there are a ton of reasons why it would be a bad idea for you to get into guns right now. yes, even if you are a minority worried about Current Events.

• ABSOLUTELY DO NOT if you do not have a safe way to store them, especially if you have mental health issues and no way to stop yourself from harming yourself with them.
• furthermore, do not buy a gun if you’re gonna keep it in a drawer and never practice with it regularly. you may harm yourself, your loved ones, and bystanders if you are a bad shot or unfamiliar with your firearm. guns are fucking complicated! they have a learning curve!!
• yes, practice means money. guns are really fucking expensive and they’re a high-investment medium-to-low-return thing if im gonna be honest. glocks are $500, 9mm ammo is 20-30c per round, you’ll probably fire off at least 100 rounds every time you practice, you’ll probably practice at least once a month, and then there’s $100-200 of supplies you need to additionally buy like PPE and speedloaders and gun cleaning kits, and liberal states tax the shit out of guns and ammo because they can’t ban guns so they’ll just be classist about them, and – okay you get the point. it REALLY adds up.
• pepper spray is much cheaper, much more accessible, much less legal risk, much easier to carry, much less self-harm risk, etc. there are great reasons to conceal carry in america even if you have pepper spray, but pepper spray can cover almost every self-defense scenario short of “you are being rushed by a bunch of people” and others like that
• also, don’t buy a gun or ammo right now, don’t panic buy this shit, prices are through the fucking roof due to election. wait a few months if you are seriously going to do this. go borrow a friend’s guns if you want to start practicing.
• to get a gun, you have to go to a gun store full of the most awful people you’ve ever met. you definitely know who they voted for

if, despite all of this, you still think it is a good idea for you to get into guns, then please do. no matter your stance on whether or not the 2nd amendment should be abolished, the fact of the matter is that guns are here to stay for a while, and it is better that the conservatives are not the only ones armed.

if you only have the resources for one firearm, i would recommend a 9mm pistol. if you have never shot a gun ever before, i would also recommend a full-size pistol like a glock 17, even if you intend to conceal carry or if you are a weak, limp-wristed queer like me. counterintuitively, larger pistols are easier to shoot than smaller ones due to Physics. i would further recommend getting handgun instruction, if not from a certified instructor, at least from a friend who knows what they’re doing.

on the topic of friends, i would highly, highly, highly recommend getting into guns with the support of like-minded friends. you probably know what the american gun community is like. you probably don’t want anything to do with these bastards.

if you don’t currently have non-shitty friends who are into guns, i would recommend joining a local group. and yes, lefty gun groups exist. for example, if you’re lucky enough to have an active socialist rifle association chapter in your area, they are probably a nice group to get into guns with. contrary to the rumors, they are not a militia or unironic larpers, it’s basically just a gun club but everyone there is making gay leftist jokes instead of transphobic and racist ones. hell, if you don’t or can’t own a gun, they’ll still let you in and hang out with them and let you shoot their guns! they’re very chill like that

look, we are most definitely in a pickle, and whether or not you decide you want to arm yourself after reading all of this, please know that there’s a way out of almost every bad situation, and there are many ways of mitigating risk. you have already survived every bad situation that you’ve encountered, this is merely another bad situation to add to your count. calm down, and take things one step at a time.

i have a take that there are only a few basic financial instruments that actually exist, and everything else is just repackaged basic ones with fancy names and hype:

• money
• loans
• gambling
• stocks
• maybe a few more but i can’t think of others

insurance? gambling, actually. options? gambling. futures? gambling. exotic options? im sorry you’re still doing gambling, just worse. margin trading? loans. cryptocurrency? money. DAOs? stocks. bonds? loans. collateralized debt obligations? you’re just putting a bunch of loans together into one to do an insurance against them, and insurance is just gambling by a nicer name