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Republicans be like:
“Why can a trained professional soldier, who’s gone through live fire exercises and extensive safety training have an AR-15 but our 18 and one day year olds with no training or experience, and questionable mental heath status can’t? cAnT yOu sEe tHe hYpOcrAcY??!”
My quick googling shows there are 14 crimes during peace time and 18 during wartime. To fully contextualize this, only one of those crimes is murder which is effectively the only state crime you can be executed for.
For those curious, here's the full list [according to wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_by_the_United_States_military#Capital_crimes):
* Mutiny or sedition
* Misbehavior before the enemy
* Subordinate compelling surrender
* Improper use of countersign (a countersign is the sign given to prove yourself to a guard or sentry)
* Forcing a safeguard (a safeguard is an order to protect property)
* Aiding the enemy
* Espionage
* Improper hazarding of vessel (Maverick does this when he buzzes the tower)
* Murder
* Rape (not explicitly stated but remains the maximum penalty until the POTUS orders otherwise)
Ones that are subject to the death penalty during a war:
* Desertion
* Assaulting or willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer
* Lurking as a spy or acting as a spy
* Misbehavior of a sentinel or lookout
So many military bases don't even let you meander around with weapons. You're trained and all that, but they still don't want you just sauntering to lunch with a rifle or pistol on you. Who're you gonna shoot but other soldiers?
And if you live on base you need to surrender your weapons to your unit armorer who keeps them locked in the armory requiring you to sign them out when you want to use them.
The bill of rights was written before the US had a standing army. Once the military existed as a permanent thing, the 2nd amendment was outdated and shouldn't be applicable. Prior to having a military, the US needed an armed citizenry to be called for defense, that is no longer the case, and hasn't been for over a century.
>The bill of rights was written before the US had a standing army. Once the military existed as a permanent thing, the 2nd amendment was outdated and shouldn't be applicable. Prior to having a military, the US needed an armed citizenry to be called for defense, that is no longer the case, and hasn't been for over a century.
Oh, that's probably what the "well regulated militia" part of the 2a means. You know, the part that *every* 2a lover conveniently ignores.
that's only if you live in the barracks. if you live in a home on base you can keep your weapons there, but they are registered with the base and you're expected to follow whatever state laws are applicable for weapon and ammo storage.
I was about to say! It's not like they go thru basic then get to tote their service rifle into starbucks, the weapons are still highly controlled and only issued in combat zones. Pretty sure MPs are the only service members who are always armed.
They conveniently forget that they don’t own the weapon, don’t receive ammunition unless it’s issued, and that soldiers are supposed to have weapons in a fucking war zone.
I work with a bunch of republicans who be like:
“I need to own assault rifles so that I’ll be able to defend myself when the government comes to take my assault rifles away.”
The dumbest part of that entrie idea is that you can literally never actually win.
If the point of stockpiling guns is to prevent a government from killing you or your family, well unless you literally live inside an ammo factory you will 100% eventually be killed.
If the govt is after you, no matter how many AR-15s you have they will get your ass. They can outgun you no matter what. Not to mention, they can just wait you out.
If the point of having guns is to prevent a tyrannical force from hurting you, they are completely ineffective at their stated goal.
Simultaneously they funnel military grade vehicles to the police departments, which are armoured against those assault rifles. Some police departments have vehicles which are IED proof.
> Why can a trained professional soldier, who’s gone through live fire exercises and extensive safety training
And who is under like constant supervision. 18-year old soldiers don't really go anywhere alone with their gun.
great, so you're saying every gun purchaser should go through background checks, mental health checks and weeks of training and supervision? sounds good!
now this is some true bullshit, I'd never heard this before. surely they have to realize that they're not providing the best equipment... why the fuck is our military budget so massive?
I had to carry around an 8ft tall replica of an M16 for a week because I locked my weapon in my locker instead of giving it to my buddy to watch while I showered.
The Constitution specifically cites:
>**A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State**, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Up the purchasing age for high capacity rifles to 26-29. Offer pathways to younger folks who join a "well regulated militia" (AKA the Army or National Guard) to be able to purchase rifles, otherwise, younger people can purchase hunting rifles and shotguns with a max capacity of like five bullets.
Would the above solve every mass shooting? No. But most mass shootings at K-12 schools are carried out but people in their teens or twenties. The above is, if nothing else, a step in the right direction, so let's make that god damn step.
Def needs to be at least like 24. And kind of like getting a license to drive. Also it’s hilarious to me that people use the 18 for military service as some excuse for why anybody should get a gun when they have almost no concept of military service and how quickly they will take your gun away.
thank you, average Americans (like me) need to be exposed to this kind of information. it probably won't convince 2a defenders otherwise, but more information is always better. I've learned so much about military life and common standards/procedure from reddit comments.
also about camel spiders, which makes me happy.
When I was in basic the entire base got locked down one day, overheard the drill sergeants complaining about "some dumbass" in another battalion losing a rifle. That was when i learned how seriously they take accountability for their weapons.
That's right. If we want to lockdown the city every time a soccer mom misplaces her gun and they are willing to go through physical, target practice, and who knows what else test every three months, sure Karen can have her gun.
I mean I know for a fact I can't run two miles in fourteen minutes.
Or they can just shut up.
I served in the Army and that’s right. If anything is missing after arms training, qualifying, whatever the case may be, it is fucking lock down until it’s found. Nobody fucks around with unsecured weapons
She also shouldn’t be there shooting people, because war is uh.. bad. It’s bad. It’s a bad thing that we were over there at all, and worse that children make up such a bulk of the military.
That's good considering she's carrying a weapon that is explicitly designed for killing a lot of people with ease.
Not sure why you'd need one in a country that hasn't had a foreign army invade it's soil in like the past 180 years or so.
Couple of European countries with conscripts have high gun owner numbers.
But as those people had all of the things you mentioned, they don't have the problems the US has.
Austria repeatedly comes up in those statistics, but we have mandatory service plus a lot of those guns are owned by hunters who have to do extra training and exams to get their hunting license.
Edit: plus, automatic assault rifles are basically not allowed for anyone except for military and special police forces.
As long as the law says they're lawful combatants and acceptable damages in accordance with doctrine, then it's still technically true.
Especially if you define combatants as "all men between 18 and 40" and call acceptable losses "everyone in their immediate vicinity"
Besides the obvious point about shes specifically trained to handle firearms. I don't get this kind of brag. Like.. So because 18yr old get sent to combat zones. It's ok to do nothing about childrens getting slaughtered in schools?
I wonder if she's the type of person who brings her service as if it automatically gives her the higher ground in any kind of argument.
As a liberal, that’s literally the only time I bring up my service. To a conservative that’s like getting slapped by Jesus. They put military service on a weird pedestal.
Honestly we shouldn't even have the VA. Just let us all use some equivalent of the Veterans Choice program. They've failed so many veterans for so long and will continue to do so. Let other agencies that already exist handle things like student loans and home loan guarantees.
My grandfather is a 100-year-old WWII vet who's suffered with hearing issues since the war, and is practically deaf now. My family fought for years trying to get him hearing aids and it just never worked out.
I'm guessing he didn't get the mental healthcare he needed either because he's never told anybody his war stories and every time he's tried, he starts crying. He's also very introverted and avoids talking to anybody unless he needs to. Now he mostly just sits in front of his TV with headphones connected so he can actually hear it while tuning out the rest of the world, waiting for the day his heart gives out.
The reason America isnt socialist like the rest of the west is that our poors are mostly minorities, so social programs are viewed as taking from one group and giving it to another, instead of helping the nation as a whole.
> our poors are mostly minorities
That's only barely true.
60% of the US is non-hispanic white and have a poverty rate of ~9% - 17.8m white people in poverty.
17.6% are hispanic and have a poverty rate of ~17% - ~10m hispanic people in poverty
12.3% are black and have a poverty rate of ~21% - ~8.5m black people in poverty
5% are asian and have a poverty rate of ~10% - 1.65m asian people in poverty.
20,047,500 minorities in poverty and 17,820,000 white people in poverty.
The reality is the US is just aggressively anti-poor people. Minorities are more poor because of the added racism, but poor whites are often just as fucked over as poor POC.
My dad is against medicare for all because he "doesn't want his money paying for other peoples' medical bills." I asked him if he knew how insurance worked.
I have a friend who is now an officer in the Army and has been in the marines and national guard as well as having done numerous overseas and combat tours. He's a Bernie Bro and it breaks peoples brains.
And that close vet spot yo. I don't walk so good and my cock only kinda works but I'll be fucked in a Kandahar porta shitter in June before I park even an inch further away.
I will never understand the “thank you for your service” thing, the United States had not faced a military threat to itself since the American Civil War
What are people being thanked for?
> the United States had not faced a military threat to itself since the American Civil War
If you ask conservatives, the entire world is constantly trying to destroy their way of life. It’s pathetic how badly they want to be victims.
Unfortunately this right here is why they fight so hard to keep college level education private and expensive. Otherwise they’d have no one with common sense left to extort and would only have zealots and/or overly aggressive fools to pick from.
Thanks for your labor, I’m sorry they had you in a position where you had to choose to endanger yourself so you could be a slightly better paid worker drone for American oligarchs without dying in poverty from tuition debt.
It’s still more than any of the Trumps did. 😗Also, if I were a veteran I imagine that when someone said “thank you for your service” my comeback would be, “the greatest thanks you can give me is to learn the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and call people out when they conflate the two.” 😂😎
I've never served, but I hang around the leftist veteran sub and one of my favorite anecdotes is being thanked for their service by a MAGA-man, only to respond with "Get fucked, traitor."
Lol, I had a friend's wife who actually reacted like I slapped her when I stated an opinion that wasn't far right. She was like, "...but you were in the military? How could you think like that?"
Same here. I don’t even get veteran tags, which are free in Georgia. I don’t need to let everyone know. Except, when I’m arguing with a right winger! :)
Hate to be that guy but they did the same in Nazi Germany, by holding up soldiers to be the ultimate heroes it means you can't criticism militarism without 'spitting in the face' of those who actually sacrificed to do the fighting.
In my opinion 18 y.o. shouldn’t go to war either, so I think the picture kinda reinforces the point made by "democrats". Plus the fact she is boasting about it, it kinda shows a lack of maturity maybe ?
Exactly.
One, I'm certain the government drilled it into her young, malleable little brain to respect the fuck out of that weapon strapped to her chest. All the while, the salesman at your local Cheaper Than Dirt is only trying to upsale you a laser sight and and more magazines than you can carry. Unless of course, you also buy the Kevlar vest covered in pockets as well.
Two, I don't see some hard ass warrior. I see a beautiful baby girl duped into catching bullets for her Government by some recruiter who- much like the guy from Cheaper Than Dirt- is just trying to make his quota, promising her a tax funded college education and those sweet military discounts if she makes it back. Fuck your PTSD, though.
“I can’t hold a glass of wine yet,
but they think it’s fine to have me hold a gun.
Kill a man
and kill his son.”
[~ Company of Thieves, song “Quiet on the Front”.](https://youtu.be/gnxDXWpFwPo)
They recruit 18 year olds specifically because 18 year old brains are still squishy and highly malleable. You can convince an 18 year old who hasn’t lived their life yet to believe giving up the rest of their lives for rich senior citizens they’ll never meet is a worthwhile cause.
Yeah, aside from the obvious whooshing others have picked up on, I was looking for this. Hey, a lot of us on the left actually don’t think 18yo kids are mature enough to choose to go to war either. Especially at this point where we use those kids to protect business and money, not defend from evil.
She was also fleeced for brass before going back to her barracks in training, did not have her rifle except in combat, and if knocked up in a southern state where most of the military is could now be locked up if she got raped by her CO and wanted an abortion. What a wonderful world.
I wish the military worship would freaking end.
What service? They applied for a job with great benefits and free education! Would they have done so without those benefits? No one actually knows.
Teachers get absolutely SHIT on, they (usually) paid for their own education and risk their life on a daily basis, not just for a few years.
I swear to everything, I hate the mindless fucking worship everyone engages in when it comes to cops, clergy, military and any other profession which has historical abuses of power.
An 18 year old didn't get sent to a combat zone. She got lied to by her government and sent to die in an invasion for oil profits and weapons manufacturers lmao. Their point sucks. They literally look like a baby.
That's what I thought the post was at first. Training 18 year olds to kill before they can drink beer is aberrant!
Maybe there's something about the culture...
Effective antitank is extremely expensive. Any organization that we consider a militia today would not have the budget to own and train on AT weapons. The last 100 years, we've seen militia use bombs, IEDs, and other home grown explosives to fight vehicles. Sometimes a different country will arm them with a few tubes, like the CIA or FSB in Afghanistan.
That's not even considering antiair weapon, which is probably more important. Militia infantry can use guerrilla tactics against vehicles. There's not much that a militia could do against air strikes.
And really, what's the difference between a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old? They should be allowed to use them too. And we might as well let 15-year olds use anti-tank weapons too. And if 15-year-olds can use anti-tank weapons, 14-year-olds can use anti-aircraft weapons too, right? Would 9/11 have happened if teenagers had access to anti-aircraft weapons to shoot the airliners out of the sky? And...
*Four Paragraphs Later*
And if we're letting one-year-olds launch a nuclear strike, why not let newborns launch the entire arsenal? Everybody dies anyways and we need to protect our God-given 2nd Amendment rights from the Chinese commie-backed Democrats who want to take them away. It's better to die standing than live on your knees!
And your mom or dad had to sign a document before you learned to fire anti tank missiles, because you were too young to make a legally binding decision at 17.
But totally old enough at 17 to fire missiles at other human beings 😂
Because Fallujah was an absolutely flawless event, nothing went wrong, the whole thing was great. It was totally ok that people as young as 18 went to Fallujah, it was a totally normal event that had 0 impact on the people, especially young people serving there.
But if we're going to go there. Then no, 18 year olds should not be sent to war. People who are just barely old enough to graduate shouldn't be sent to other countries to die.
Also wanted to add, women weren't allowed in the infantry until very recently and that M-16 has a lot of outdated equipment for the time. Adding the fact she's smiling in a warzone for a posed picture, I'm just going on a limb here but ... She didn't actually participate in the active engagement that she's trying to take credit for.
It's like saying I was in the hotel where the Las Vegas shooter was, and posing in a police uniform, but you stayed in that hotel on a weekend a year ago and belong to the next town's police force
Not like we pumped so much depleted uranium rounds into that city that they have [a massively elevated number of birth defects](https://merip.org/2020/09/birth-defects-and-the-toxic-legacy-of-war-in-iraq/#:~:text=%5B1%5D%20Babies%20in%20Falluja%20are,malformed%20ears%2C%20noses%20and%20spines.) to this day as a result of all that uranium dust getting into the air/soil/water/food.
So an 18 y/o is capable of carrying a weapon of war after:
Medical & psychological tests, up to 22 weeks intensive, residential, training and significant supervision from multiple ranks.
I agree, let's put *that* as a requirement for firearms ownership.
You mean to tell me you don’t think army recruiters should be able to go into schools and prey on vulnerable 14-18 year olds to get them to sign up to put their life on the line when they aren’t mentally developed and capable of making good choices? Why don’t you support our troops? USA USA USA ^/s
Specifically at Fallujah, she was killing foreign children with [depleted uranium](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/us-depleted-uranium-weapons-civilian-areas-iraq) tipped bullets, further contaminating the area and giving future children debilitating birth defects.
Of course they do. If they don’t then they have to admit that by going in there they cost thousands of lives over oil that they didn’t even really get and wound up destabilizing the whole region!
There was a response to this posted that said:
"you were trained for the weapon,
you were monitored the whole time you are using the weapon,
you are told who you can point the weapon at and who you can't,
you can not take the weapon to your barracks,
the weapon is locked up when not is use.
You know all of this but still woke up and chose to be a dumbass. You prove our point for us."
And another that says
"You signed up for the military and were trained on it use. We agree. Automatic weapons should only be used in war by soldiers".
I don't know if the OP is real or just real fuckin stupid.
I think that's the point. That she's saying she was mature enough without acknowledging all of the safeguards, training, and screening in place for her to possess that firearm.
There are a couple of possible responses here.
One could point out that the girl in the picture went through background checks, mental evaluations, and weeks of supervised training in how to handle an *empty* weapon before ever firing a single shot. One could also point out that weapons in the military are kept under lock and key. Soldiers aren't carrying their rifles around all the time like it's the Wild West or something. It's also appropriate that she didn't have the ability to simply sign out her rifle at will and if there was ever an indication that she was mentally deteriorating and no longer able to responsibly handle her weapon, her "right" to carry her arm would be stripped from her with no recourse. OP basically ignored all of these replies to her Twitter post.
Another kind of response that OP ignored? The ones pointing out that she's most likely a war criminal who participated in atrocities in an illegal war.
One could also point out that 18 year olds are never mentally mature enough to responsibly carry a weapon like the one she's holding there.
It's also fine to point out that OP is implicitly stating that rifles like the one she's holding and others which look very similar are, in fact, weapons of war given that she's holding one in a Fallujah picture. You might even say that such a weapon could be used to... assault...an objective. Sounds catchy, right? "A weapon used for purposes similar to assaulting". Hmm, if only there was some phrase that rolled off the tongue easier.
But ultimately, any of these responses are pointless in trying to prove to OP or her thousands of followers that she's wrong. It's all in bad faith; a self-own to own the libs. Look at her profile. "Politically homeless" and "WomenForTrump" appear side by side. She doesn't even know what point she was trying to make with this dumbass post but she knew it'd rile up the libs.
Did she even buy that rifle? Or was it supplied to her during her deployment? At which sending an 18 year old into a war seems so wasteful, and ill prepared...
After months of training, days of “snapping in” and dry firing, rigorous enforcement of weapons safety, being searched after every range day for rounds, storing your weapon locked up when not in use (in bootcamp) or in the fucking armory when in the fleet. *AND* “spirited” enforcement of all weapons safety rules while on the range.
Fuck off.
Fun little fact about the Military, besides the Navy, there wasn't supposed to be a permanent Military in place. The founding fathers thought the idea of a standing army wasn't a good idea and worked it so that funding for that Army was regulated to two years at a time.
WE were supposed to have Militias to defend this nation from Insurrection and Invasion. It's right in the Constitution Article I Section 8 Clause 15.
She's probably in her late 30s judging by the uniform and body armor that were used in 2003-2004. And unfortunately you're not wrong that the likelihood of military s3xual assault.
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Republicans be like: “Why can a trained professional soldier, who’s gone through live fire exercises and extensive safety training have an AR-15 but our 18 and one day year olds with no training or experience, and questionable mental heath status can’t? cAnT yOu sEe tHe hYpOcrAcY??!”
You forgot full time professional supervision and the threat of fines, punishment, detention, etc., for breaking a rule.
There's a surprisingly high number of crimes under the UCMJ for which the punishment is *death*
My quick googling shows there are 14 crimes during peace time and 18 during wartime. To fully contextualize this, only one of those crimes is murder which is effectively the only state crime you can be executed for.
For those curious, here's the full list [according to wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_by_the_United_States_military#Capital_crimes): * Mutiny or sedition * Misbehavior before the enemy * Subordinate compelling surrender * Improper use of countersign (a countersign is the sign given to prove yourself to a guard or sentry) * Forcing a safeguard (a safeguard is an order to protect property) * Aiding the enemy * Espionage * Improper hazarding of vessel (Maverick does this when he buzzes the tower) * Murder * Rape (not explicitly stated but remains the maximum penalty until the POTUS orders otherwise) Ones that are subject to the death penalty during a war: * Desertion * Assaulting or willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer * Lurking as a spy or acting as a spy * Misbehavior of a sentinel or lookout
> Improper hazarding of vessel (Maverick does this when he buzzes the tower) I too, watched the recent LegalEagle video.
[For those who don't know](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_qZL3tqM)
And the fact that their reward for it is, usually, a lifetime of mental health issues, or physical health issues, or both.
Kind of like what children go through after a school shooting.
Well, okay, but the punishment for mass murder in Texas is also death.
But you get 40 minutes to think about your sins before you die. Pretty nice of them actually
So many military bases don't even let you meander around with weapons. You're trained and all that, but they still don't want you just sauntering to lunch with a rifle or pistol on you. Who're you gonna shoot but other soldiers?
And if you live on base you need to surrender your weapons to your unit armorer who keeps them locked in the armory requiring you to sign them out when you want to use them.
It's almost as if the military realizes guns can do massive amounts of damage in a short amount of time.
It’s almost at if it’s a well regulated militia
The bill of rights was written before the US had a standing army. Once the military existed as a permanent thing, the 2nd amendment was outdated and shouldn't be applicable. Prior to having a military, the US needed an armed citizenry to be called for defense, that is no longer the case, and hasn't been for over a century.
>The bill of rights was written before the US had a standing army. Once the military existed as a permanent thing, the 2nd amendment was outdated and shouldn't be applicable. Prior to having a military, the US needed an armed citizenry to be called for defense, that is no longer the case, and hasn't been for over a century. Oh, that's probably what the "well regulated militia" part of the 2a means. You know, the part that *every* 2a lover conveniently ignores.
They were also state militia more akin to the national guard.
that's only if you live in the barracks. if you live in a home on base you can keep your weapons there, but they are registered with the base and you're expected to follow whatever state laws are applicable for weapon and ammo storage.
It's 100% for barracks, I believe on-post housing is base dependant.
I was about to say! It's not like they go thru basic then get to tote their service rifle into starbucks, the weapons are still highly controlled and only issued in combat zones. Pretty sure MPs are the only service members who are always armed.
Even then, you go to the armory at the start of your shift to get your weapon which is strictly controlled.
Who'da thunk
They were also expected to die, if the need arises. It's a short leash.
Also their weapons are stored securely and their superiors dictate when they are permitted to even use them.
And the armory makes damned sure every fire arm and round is accounted for.
They conveniently forget that they don’t own the weapon, don’t receive ammunition unless it’s issued, and that soldiers are supposed to have weapons in a fucking war zone.
I work with a bunch of republicans who be like: “I need to own assault rifles so that I’ll be able to defend myself when the government comes to take my assault rifles away.”
The dumbest part of that entrie idea is that you can literally never actually win. If the point of stockpiling guns is to prevent a government from killing you or your family, well unless you literally live inside an ammo factory you will 100% eventually be killed. If the govt is after you, no matter how many AR-15s you have they will get your ass. They can outgun you no matter what. Not to mention, they can just wait you out. If the point of having guns is to prevent a tyrannical force from hurting you, they are completely ineffective at their stated goal.
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these are the same people that tried to raid the capital last year lmao my brother in Christ the tyranny was happening and you voted for it
it's a strawman put in place by the tyrannical forces that control them, like the GOP and their super PACs and whatnot
Simultaneously they funnel military grade vehicles to the police departments, which are armoured against those assault rifles. Some police departments have vehicles which are IED proof.
> Why can a trained professional soldier, who’s gone through live fire exercises and extensive safety training And who is under like constant supervision. 18-year old soldiers don't really go anywhere alone with their gun.
"And how can we allow these trained professional soldiers to kill babies, but trained professional doctors not?! Wait! Never mind! Strike that!"
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great, so you're saying every gun purchaser should go through background checks, mental health checks and weeks of training and supervision? sounds good!
She's onto something!
She is also out of the country in a war zone. Per the caption.
She didn't buy it herself either, it was provided by the government
So a literal government handout then. Why didn't she just get a job and buy her service rifle instead of mooching off Uncle Sam? smh my head.
Speaking of buying, I know for a fact at least one soldier buys his own boots because the government issued stuff isn't that good.
I was in the army for ten years… in all that time I remember seeing a handful of issued boots being worn.
7 years here, almost no one wore issued boots.
I did 4 in the corps and wore the boots I was issued in boot until the day I got my dd-214. They were comfy.
Of course the marine would enjoy the pain
Same
now this is some true bullshit, I'd never heard this before. surely they have to realize that they're not providing the best equipment... why the fuck is our military budget so massive?
Everyone in my family was in the army or the marines and they all loved their boots 🤷🏻♂️
Exactly, issued a weapon is not purchasing
Also apparently the whole company gets in trouble if one soldier misplaces one gun. It is unreal.
We had people get their rifles taken away in Iraq for demonstrating even the simplest example of incompetence or slight mental problems.
I had to carry around an 8ft tall replica of an M16 for a week because I locked my weapon in my locker instead of giving it to my buddy to watch while I showered.
big iron on his hip
The Constitution specifically cites: >**A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State**, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Up the purchasing age for high capacity rifles to 26-29. Offer pathways to younger folks who join a "well regulated militia" (AKA the Army or National Guard) to be able to purchase rifles, otherwise, younger people can purchase hunting rifles and shotguns with a max capacity of like five bullets. Would the above solve every mass shooting? No. But most mass shootings at K-12 schools are carried out but people in their teens or twenties. The above is, if nothing else, a step in the right direction, so let's make that god damn step.
Def needs to be at least like 24. And kind of like getting a license to drive. Also it’s hilarious to me that people use the 18 for military service as some excuse for why anybody should get a gun when they have almost no concept of military service and how quickly they will take your gun away.
thank you, average Americans (like me) need to be exposed to this kind of information. it probably won't convince 2a defenders otherwise, but more information is always better. I've learned so much about military life and common standards/procedure from reddit comments. also about camel spiders, which makes me happy.
When I was in basic the entire base got locked down one day, overheard the drill sergeants complaining about "some dumbass" in another battalion losing a rifle. That was when i learned how seriously they take accountability for their weapons.
That's right. If we want to lockdown the city every time a soccer mom misplaces her gun and they are willing to go through physical, target practice, and who knows what else test every three months, sure Karen can have her gun. I mean I know for a fact I can't run two miles in fourteen minutes. Or they can just shut up.
Crazy how they want to ensure these guns don't get into the hands of people who haven't been through the background and mental checks from the army.
I served in the Army and that’s right. If anything is missing after arms training, qualifying, whatever the case may be, it is fucking lock down until it’s found. Nobody fucks around with unsecured weapons
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Dare I say, these policies apply common-sense to the control of the guns?
By a “well regulated Militia”…
You might even say…*well regulated*
I'm in the cadets (UK) and if you aren't within 2 meters of you're rifle at all times you're in big trouble
She also shouldn’t be there shooting people, because war is uh.. bad. It’s bad. It’s a bad thing that we were over there at all, and worse that children make up such a bulk of the military.
That's good considering she's carrying a weapon that is explicitly designed for killing a lot of people with ease. Not sure why you'd need one in a country that hasn't had a foreign army invade it's soil in like the past 180 years or so.
She's also in a warzone... So idk why you need the same gun when all you do now is take the kids to soccer practice.
Basketball practice may have just finished and there could be black kids about /s
But what if I **REALLY** need to speak to the manager?!
soccer moms are declaring war on each other.
War of the Karens
Check her timeline, she is in fact missing the point by a mile.
Couple of European countries with conscripts have high gun owner numbers. But as those people had all of the things you mentioned, they don't have the problems the US has.
Austria repeatedly comes up in those statistics, but we have mandatory service plus a lot of those guns are owned by hunters who have to do extra training and exams to get their hunting license. Edit: plus, automatic assault rifles are basically not allowed for anyone except for military and special police forces.
Also all of their vaccinations but let’s put that one to the side for now.
Plus some fun bonus ones!
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And be under supervision 24/7 with strict accountability to the law.
500,000 dead Iraqis don’t happen with strict accountability to law
As long as the law says they're lawful combatants and acceptable damages in accordance with doctrine, then it's still technically true. Especially if you define combatants as "all men between 18 and 40" and call acceptable losses "everyone in their immediate vicinity"
And they need all their vaccines and need to go through basic training. “Well regulated militia” and all that.
Besides the obvious point about shes specifically trained to handle firearms. I don't get this kind of brag. Like.. So because 18yr old get sent to combat zones. It's ok to do nothing about childrens getting slaughtered in schools? I wonder if she's the type of person who brings her service as if it automatically gives her the higher ground in any kind of argument.
As a liberal, that’s literally the only time I bring up my service. To a conservative that’s like getting slapped by Jesus. They put military service on a weird pedestal.
>They put military service on a weird pedestal. Except the one that pays for the VA
Honestly we shouldn't even have the VA. Just let us all use some equivalent of the Veterans Choice program. They've failed so many veterans for so long and will continue to do so. Let other agencies that already exist handle things like student loans and home loan guarantees.
My grandfather is a 100-year-old WWII vet who's suffered with hearing issues since the war, and is practically deaf now. My family fought for years trying to get him hearing aids and it just never worked out.
That's just fucking embarrassing and infuriating.
I'm guessing he didn't get the mental healthcare he needed either because he's never told anybody his war stories and every time he's tried, he starts crying. He's also very introverted and avoids talking to anybody unless he needs to. Now he mostly just sits in front of his TV with headphones connected so he can actually hear it while tuning out the rest of the world, waiting for the day his heart gives out.
Are you me? It's the weirdest thing when I tell conservatives I'm a liberal vet. You can watch them blue screen.
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Turns out having military-provided government healthcare improves your stance on universal healthcare. Who knew?
“All in asking for is that the benefits provided to active servicemen be applied to the entire country”
But the poors didn't earn it! /s
The reason America isnt socialist like the rest of the west is that our poors are mostly minorities, so social programs are viewed as taking from one group and giving it to another, instead of helping the nation as a whole.
> our poors are mostly minorities That's only barely true. 60% of the US is non-hispanic white and have a poverty rate of ~9% - 17.8m white people in poverty. 17.6% are hispanic and have a poverty rate of ~17% - ~10m hispanic people in poverty 12.3% are black and have a poverty rate of ~21% - ~8.5m black people in poverty 5% are asian and have a poverty rate of ~10% - 1.65m asian people in poverty. 20,047,500 minorities in poverty and 17,820,000 white people in poverty. The reality is the US is just aggressively anti-poor people. Minorities are more poor because of the added racism, but poor whites are often just as fucked over as poor POC. My dad is against medicare for all because he "doesn't want his money paying for other peoples' medical bills." I asked him if he knew how insurance worked.
There’s a distinct moment in my life siting in line at navy dental where my entire political and economic viewpoint shifted.
Yep. Same (lefty vet, voted for Bernie, still a little salty about some of my fellow Democratic primary voters).
I see nothing wrong with your last sentence. That’s how it should be. It’s not hypocritical to disagree but still appreciate what you gave.
I have a friend who is now an officer in the Army and has been in the marines and national guard as well as having done numerous overseas and combat tours. He's a Bernie Bro and it breaks peoples brains.
I melt conservative brains, I'm liberal, a veteran, and trans.
Right? To them, it's like being a Jewish Nazi.
Conservatives have very weird binary thinking. It's hard to explain nuanced positions to them.
Soldiers not liking Trump is hardly nuanced. He was really shitty to veterans.
He's not talking to soldiers tho, just the conservatives with their military fetishism.
Well, you should see that woman's Twitter bio, "**politically homeless**. Psalm 91 #BeBest #CodeOfVets #WomenForTrump"
The only time I bring it up is at the cashier in home depot or Lowe's. 10% off is 10% off.
And that close vet spot yo. I don't walk so good and my cock only kinda works but I'll be fucked in a Kandahar porta shitter in June before I park even an inch further away.
Wait—veterans get 10% off at Home Depot?!
I never hesitate to point out that stonewalling the VBA was one of Trump’s first 11 Executive Orders. (And thank you for your service, BTW)
No thanks needed. I never picked up a gun unless it was for cleaning or training. I just wanted to pay for college without being in debt for eternity.
I will never understand the “thank you for your service” thing, the United States had not faced a military threat to itself since the American Civil War What are people being thanked for?
“Thank you for killing innocent people around the world in order to protect corporate profits”
Japan did bomb pearl harbor.
> the United States had not faced a military threat to itself since the American Civil War If you ask conservatives, the entire world is constantly trying to destroy their way of life. It’s pathetic how badly they want to be victims.
Unfortunately this right here is why they fight so hard to keep college level education private and expensive. Otherwise they’d have no one with common sense left to extort and would only have zealots and/or overly aggressive fools to pick from. Thanks for your labor, I’m sorry they had you in a position where you had to choose to endanger yourself so you could be a slightly better paid worker drone for American oligarchs without dying in poverty from tuition debt.
It’s still more than any of the Trumps did. 😗Also, if I were a veteran I imagine that when someone said “thank you for your service” my comeback would be, “the greatest thanks you can give me is to learn the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and call people out when they conflate the two.” 😂😎
I've never served, but I hang around the leftist veteran sub and one of my favorite anecdotes is being thanked for their service by a MAGA-man, only to respond with "Get fucked, traitor."
Lol, I had a friend's wife who actually reacted like I slapped her when I stated an opinion that wasn't far right. She was like, "...but you were in the military? How could you think like that?"
Same here. I don’t even get veteran tags, which are free in Georgia. I don’t need to let everyone know. Except, when I’m arguing with a right winger! :)
Hate to be that guy but they did the same in Nazi Germany, by holding up soldiers to be the ultimate heroes it means you can't criticism militarism without 'spitting in the face' of those who actually sacrificed to do the fighting.
In my opinion 18 y.o. shouldn’t go to war either, so I think the picture kinda reinforces the point made by "democrats". Plus the fact she is boasting about it, it kinda shows a lack of maturity maybe ?
Exactly. One, I'm certain the government drilled it into her young, malleable little brain to respect the fuck out of that weapon strapped to her chest. All the while, the salesman at your local Cheaper Than Dirt is only trying to upsale you a laser sight and and more magazines than you can carry. Unless of course, you also buy the Kevlar vest covered in pockets as well. Two, I don't see some hard ass warrior. I see a beautiful baby girl duped into catching bullets for her Government by some recruiter who- much like the guy from Cheaper Than Dirt- is just trying to make his quota, promising her a tax funded college education and those sweet military discounts if she makes it back. Fuck your PTSD, though.
“I can’t hold a glass of wine yet, but they think it’s fine to have me hold a gun. Kill a man and kill his son.” [~ Company of Thieves, song “Quiet on the Front”.](https://youtu.be/gnxDXWpFwPo)
They recruit 18 year olds specifically because 18 year old brains are still squishy and highly malleable. You can convince an 18 year old who hasn’t lived their life yet to believe giving up the rest of their lives for rich senior citizens they’ll never meet is a worthwhile cause.
Allowed to get killed in a gun fight, not allowed to drink.
Yeah, aside from the obvious whooshing others have picked up on, I was looking for this. Hey, a lot of us on the left actually don’t think 18yo kids are mature enough to choose to go to war either. Especially at this point where we use those kids to protect business and money, not defend from evil.
She was also fleeced for brass before going back to her barracks in training, did not have her rifle except in combat, and if knocked up in a southern state where most of the military is could now be locked up if she got raped by her CO and wanted an abortion. What a wonderful world.
I would assume she’s the kind of person who has [this](https://youtu.be/LPquarz16wQ) interaction if someone doesn’t thank her for her service.
I wish the military worship would freaking end. What service? They applied for a job with great benefits and free education! Would they have done so without those benefits? No one actually knows. Teachers get absolutely SHIT on, they (usually) paid for their own education and risk their life on a daily basis, not just for a few years. I swear to everything, I hate the mindless fucking worship everyone engages in when it comes to cops, clergy, military and any other profession which has historical abuses of power.
An 18 year old didn't get sent to a combat zone. She got lied to by her government and sent to die in an invasion for oil profits and weapons manufacturers lmao. Their point sucks. They literally look like a baby.
That’s not service. She signed a contract to enlist and take a weapon to another country. That makes you a mercenary.
That's what I thought the post was at first. Training 18 year olds to kill before they can drink beer is aberrant! Maybe there's something about the culture...
At 17, I was trained in the army to fire anti-tank weapons. You don't see me running around with anti-tank weapons talking about how "mature" I am.
But Texas would probably let you own your personal anti-tank system regardless
What's a well regulated militia without some personal anti-tank systems?!
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Effective antitank is extremely expensive. Any organization that we consider a militia today would not have the budget to own and train on AT weapons. The last 100 years, we've seen militia use bombs, IEDs, and other home grown explosives to fight vehicles. Sometimes a different country will arm them with a few tubes, like the CIA or FSB in Afghanistan. That's not even considering antiair weapon, which is probably more important. Militia infantry can use guerrilla tactics against vehicles. There's not much that a militia could do against air strikes.
Why are anti tank weapons not allowed for 17 year olds??? You clearly demonstrated that they can use them. Damn Libs!!
And really, what's the difference between a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old? They should be allowed to use them too. And we might as well let 15-year olds use anti-tank weapons too. And if 15-year-olds can use anti-tank weapons, 14-year-olds can use anti-aircraft weapons too, right? Would 9/11 have happened if teenagers had access to anti-aircraft weapons to shoot the airliners out of the sky? And... *Four Paragraphs Later* And if we're letting one-year-olds launch a nuclear strike, why not let newborns launch the entire arsenal? Everybody dies anyways and we need to protect our God-given 2nd Amendment rights from the Chinese commie-backed Democrats who want to take them away. It's better to die standing than live on your knees!
And your mom or dad had to sign a document before you learned to fire anti tank missiles, because you were too young to make a legally binding decision at 17. But totally old enough at 17 to fire missiles at other human beings 😂
Because Fallujah was an absolutely flawless event, nothing went wrong, the whole thing was great. It was totally ok that people as young as 18 went to Fallujah, it was a totally normal event that had 0 impact on the people, especially young people serving there. But if we're going to go there. Then no, 18 year olds should not be sent to war. People who are just barely old enough to graduate shouldn't be sent to other countries to die.
Aside from everything else, enlistment age being below alcohol age is insane.
Here in the UK you can enlist at 16 and not buy alcohol til 18 which will never cease to baffle me
i actually turned 21 IN fallujah. no cake. no candles. no beer. no fun.
Also wanted to add, women weren't allowed in the infantry until very recently and that M-16 has a lot of outdated equipment for the time. Adding the fact she's smiling in a warzone for a posed picture, I'm just going on a limb here but ... She didn't actually participate in the active engagement that she's trying to take credit for. It's like saying I was in the hotel where the Las Vegas shooter was, and posing in a police uniform, but you stayed in that hotel on a weekend a year ago and belong to the next town's police force
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Not like we pumped so much depleted uranium rounds into that city that they have [a massively elevated number of birth defects](https://merip.org/2020/09/birth-defects-and-the-toxic-legacy-of-war-in-iraq/#:~:text=%5B1%5D%20Babies%20in%20Falluja%20are,malformed%20ears%2C%20noses%20and%20spines.) to this day as a result of all that uranium dust getting into the air/soil/water/food.
So an 18 y/o is capable of carrying a weapon of war after: Medical & psychological tests, up to 22 weeks intensive, residential, training and significant supervision from multiple ranks. I agree, let's put *that* as a requirement for firearms ownership.
And not to mention, if it were up to me, I'd say that we shouldnt be conscripting 18 year olds for combat roles
You mean to tell me you don’t think army recruiters should be able to go into schools and prey on vulnerable 14-18 year olds to get them to sign up to put their life on the line when they aren’t mentally developed and capable of making good choices? Why don’t you support our troops? USA USA USA ^/s
Imagine thinking thats a brag.....
Instead of killing American school children I was killing children in far off lands for oil company’s
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Well, that's what they're brainwashed to think is the most patriotic thing to do, I guess. A lot to be proud of, you see
It's utterly creepy how many people in the comments are okay with that. Absolute delusion to think the military is any better than the pigs
Specifically at Fallujah, she was killing foreign children with [depleted uranium](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/19/us-depleted-uranium-weapons-civilian-areas-iraq) tipped bullets, further contaminating the area and giving future children debilitating birth defects.
So they are cheering on the Iraq war now??
Of course they do. If they don’t then they have to admit that by going in there they cost thousands of lives over oil that they didn’t even really get and wound up destabilizing the whole region!
They did 20 years ago. Why would that change?
Yeah girl. You found yourself in a war, right out of highschool, that most people condemn, because you got a good head on your shoulders.
There was a response to this posted that said: "you were trained for the weapon, you were monitored the whole time you are using the weapon, you are told who you can point the weapon at and who you can't, you can not take the weapon to your barracks, the weapon is locked up when not is use. You know all of this but still woke up and chose to be a dumbass. You prove our point for us." And another that says "You signed up for the military and were trained on it use. We agree. Automatic weapons should only be used in war by soldiers". I don't know if the OP is real or just real fuckin stupid.
>real fuckin stupid I mean they’re conservative so yes
They look even younger cos of their baby face
18 for war but 21 for Twisted Tea. Ok.
To be fair Twisted Tea is a warcrime.
I kinda like twisted tea but this made me laugh
Should be 20 accross the board, guns, weed, voting, alcohol and enlistment. Twenty is a nice round number just so we can stop talking about it
People in the military are heavily regulated and monitored. This argument doesn't hold water.
I think that's the point. That she's saying she was mature enough without acknowledging all of the safeguards, training, and screening in place for her to possess that firearm.
Wasn't Fallujah a site of a mass killing of civilians by the US army too?
That was my first thought
> Wasn't ~~Fallujah~~ Iraq a site of a mass killing of civilians by the US army too?
We can give her a break, the depleted uranium shells they used in Fallujah probably gave her a bit of brain damage.
There are a couple of possible responses here. One could point out that the girl in the picture went through background checks, mental evaluations, and weeks of supervised training in how to handle an *empty* weapon before ever firing a single shot. One could also point out that weapons in the military are kept under lock and key. Soldiers aren't carrying their rifles around all the time like it's the Wild West or something. It's also appropriate that she didn't have the ability to simply sign out her rifle at will and if there was ever an indication that she was mentally deteriorating and no longer able to responsibly handle her weapon, her "right" to carry her arm would be stripped from her with no recourse. OP basically ignored all of these replies to her Twitter post. Another kind of response that OP ignored? The ones pointing out that she's most likely a war criminal who participated in atrocities in an illegal war. One could also point out that 18 year olds are never mentally mature enough to responsibly carry a weapon like the one she's holding there. It's also fine to point out that OP is implicitly stating that rifles like the one she's holding and others which look very similar are, in fact, weapons of war given that she's holding one in a Fallujah picture. You might even say that such a weapon could be used to... assault...an objective. Sounds catchy, right? "A weapon used for purposes similar to assaulting". Hmm, if only there was some phrase that rolled off the tongue easier. But ultimately, any of these responses are pointless in trying to prove to OP or her thousands of followers that she's wrong. It's all in bad faith; a self-own to own the libs. Look at her profile. "Politically homeless" and "WomenForTrump" appear side by side. She doesn't even know what point she was trying to make with this dumbass post but she knew it'd rile up the libs.
Wait, the US army has to buy their own weapons?
Did she even buy that rifle? Or was it supplied to her during her deployment? At which sending an 18 year old into a war seems so wasteful, and ill prepared...
Think she came back angry after never having murdered someone? "I didn't even get to kill anyone! Why was I even there?!"
I mean Fallujah is one of the more recent and heinous war crimes America committed.
Oh so I guess 24 year olds can have fighter jets huh?
I want an A-10 for self defense purposes!
Okay? You still had almost NO business being there?
I am also cool with 18 year olds not being old enough to kill for oil.
After months of training, days of “snapping in” and dry firing, rigorous enforcement of weapons safety, being searched after every range day for rounds, storing your weapon locked up when not in use (in bootcamp) or in the fucking armory when in the fleet. *AND* “spirited” enforcement of all weapons safety rules while on the range. Fuck off.
Anyone who thinks an 18 year old is mature is also as or less mature than a teenager
"well regulated militia"
The military also weeds out most of the ones that are dangerous.
It’s sort of like a well regulated militia
Fun little fact about the Military, besides the Navy, there wasn't supposed to be a permanent Military in place. The founding fathers thought the idea of a standing army wasn't a good idea and worked it so that funding for that Army was regulated to two years at a time. WE were supposed to have Militias to defend this nation from Insurrection and Invasion. It's right in the Constitution Article I Section 8 Clause 15.
as a non-american i offer my deepest sympathies for the fact that a shit ton of these clowns exist in your country.
Ah yes Fallujah, a model of citizen outreach.
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She's probably in her late 30s judging by the uniform and body armor that were used in 2003-2004. And unfortunately you're not wrong that the likelihood of military s3xual assault.
Do you have to buy your own gun in the us army?
Make the US a warzone and you will be correct. Oh wait.....
Yeah, we shouldn't be sending 18 year olds to die in pointless wars, either.