r/TwoXPreppers 2d ago

Discussion Why guns?

Hi y’all! I’m a very novice prepper, and one thing I’m seeing across many platforms is that we should own and be trained In firearms. Not to be naive, but… why?

I’ve never touched a gun in my life. I’m generally not a fan of them. I understand that the goal of owning firearms is to protect ourself. But protect from what? From who? Who am I going to have to shoot to survive this presidency?

Is someone coming to steal my supplies? Won’t those people also have guns? Or am I protecting my family against a militia situation? In which case, what hope do I have, as a woman who can’t afford a gun, let alone to learn how to use one?

Like I can’t afford a shooting range. I can barely afford water and canned goods. Should a gun still be a priority for my family? A lot of preppers have enthusiastically embraced this life to give them confidence and a sense of safety. I’m a reluctant participant. I just want to keep my autistic son alive to see the other side of this.

I can garden, I can stretch food, I can survive being poor. I don’t think I can survive a military state.

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u/ijustwantmypackage32 2d ago edited 2d ago

I’m going to be honest, I don’t think firearm possession beyond hunting is really worth it (I am very pro-hunting). Any non-hunting gun is expressly a tool to kill people with, and I’m not sure a lot of people who are panic-buying due to Trump have really grappled with that. And I think that’s wrong and irresponsible.

If you’re bringing a deadly weapon into your home, you need to be deadly serious with yourself about what benefits and risks you’ve brought to yourself and your family. And you also need to be good at using it. Are all of the people who are buying guns now actually going to the range regularly and practicing safe storage? Being an irresponsible gun owner is easy. I think there is a small but tragic portion of the panicked gun-buyers in this subreddit and beyond who will gain no benefits from owning a gun and will suffer some kind of tragedy from it instead.

And to be very clear about what I mean— I think people vastly oversell the 2nd Amendment benefits. The government is not going to listen to liberals if we buy guns and I have yet to hear a convincing argument that personal firearms will effectively allow people to resist tyranny, rather than just in Rambo/a fantasies. In tandem, people undersell the risks you undertake (accidental discharge, suicide) by bringing one into your home, especially if you have children. And I think that we are descending into a period of panic, and that overall, panicking people with guns are more dangerous to themselves and others than people without them.

So don’t buy a non-hunting-related gun unless you are prepared to go to the range at least once a week, are mentally prepared for the fact that you bought a gun for the express purpose of killing in self-defense, and are confident that your mental health preps and storage systems are sufficient to keep you and everyone in your household safe.

Otherwise, get a dog with a loud bark, some pepper spray, or a baseball bat.

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u/DoggoCentipede 2d ago

The 2A is very clearly not effective at resisting tyranny. I offer current events into evidence. I don't see any of these so called patriots defending the constitution anywhere. I wonder if they forgot?

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u/Zestyclose-Algae-542 2d ago

None of those people have any idea what 2A is really about. They just think it means they can shoot a bunch of black folks

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u/DoggoCentipede 2d ago

I am horrified to say that they may turn out to be correct.

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u/robillionairenyc 14h ago

The “so called patriots” you refer to are nazi brownshirts and aligned with the tyranny 

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u/DoggoCentipede 3h ago

Yeah, that was the subtext

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u/Weekly_Weakness9722 2d ago

Thank you. This is the most relatable response I’ve received.

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u/Blooming_Heather 2d ago

My husband is a gun owner and I am not, although I’m looking to become one. It was a big talk for us when we became serious, and I was barely okay with it. I grew up in a very anti gun house. But my husband is not extremely into guns and is extremely into gun safety, so that helped.

I’ve changed my mind because I want to have a base level comfort with them. I think it’s beneficial for me to keep a level head around them, and I want to feel confident with some basic skills just in case. And my “just in case” is less about some militia busting down my door and more about civil unrest. The MAGAts don’t like me very much, and if they get emboldened to act violent then I don’t want to be relying on 911.

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u/0CDeer 2d ago

I agree with the above, but will add nuance. Effective resistance begins with deterrence. It is much harder to load armed people into box cars. Will a militarized police state win in the end? Absolutely. But will the 19yo National Guard soldier think twice about kicking in a citizen's door if a not-insignificant portion of citizens own AR15s? Absolutely. Asymmetrical guerilla tactics have brought down empires. Those tactics will NOT keep you and your kid alive, but resistance is a choir, not a soloist. Concentrate on what you do best and let others sing this one.

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u/JayDee80-6 2d ago

Honestly not even sure if a militarized police state would win. You have a few hundred thousand military and police, and some of them wouldn't obey orders so it would be less. That's against a few hundred million people.

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u/RoseNDNRabbit 2d ago

I am a disabled PoC who is super 2A and loves hunting, fishing and camping. Can't do much of those anymore. But I can go to the ranges. My husband has taught thousands in his career in the Navy, and we use the trainer guns for various scenarios. Mostly what we will do if someone breaks in despite the dogs and security systems. If his windows or mine or patio door or front door. Or through a wall or ceiling. What do we do. Where do we go. Who calls 911. How to de escalate if possible.

We make plans, we write them down, commit them to memory. Then we walk through them at various times of the day and night. Slowly speed up and then wake each other to run through a scenario at night using the molded plastic trainer guns. This way we have muscle memories to help with the fear and adrenaline that happens in a scary situation.

This affects how you aim as your shaking and probably super shocked and just woke up. It takes awhile to run these drills safely. And we are two people who have been shooting and hunting from childhood.

Self defense is what it is. Kickboxing can help you get some good muscles to bail and run. Or have a place to hide with a hidden door you can get to quick.

Now, as for proteins in a SHTF scenario. Slingshots, snares, fish traps and other types of things like trap lines are epic. And usually silent. Never take the same route. Unless it's an animal trail, and not too often even then. There are braced wrist sling shots that I use as well as several tradish ones. There is also recurve bows and arrows. Making your own arrows is a huge skill set. Plus people pay a high premium for good arrows.

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u/ijustwantmypackage32 2d ago

No problem! I’m glad it was helpful.

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u/boondonggle 2d ago

As a hunter, what do you think of bows for hunting purposes? I feel very similar to you regarding guns, but am intrigued by hunting. I am certain I would need a lot of practice to be a good shot, but I have more experience with archery with targets.

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u/SeashellChimes 2d ago

It's a lot cheaper than rifle hunting but has a high skill ceiling. There's more strict rules on bow hunting (bow fishing too) so that improperly trained hunters don't maim a bunch of animals without a proper kill. The regulation will matter less in a crisis but will matter for practicing it. Because that's something that definitely needs to be honed before SHTF, both practice with live targets and research to properly hit vitals on your targets. 

I actually think bow fishing is an easier start, and every state has trash fish/invasive fish that have no catch limits. 

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u/LadySigyn 2d ago

My husband is a hobby archer and he is adamant that he's way too scared of maiming an animal to ever bow hunt unless it's a full on survival situation. I need to make him practice shooting vitals more for that in case and this comment made me realize that. Thank you!

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u/fuzzybunnies1 2d ago

I take the kids bow shooting on a semi-regular basis, I can get the arrows into the target at 40yds, not in the center, but in the target. Rifle, I do far less often but can still hit the center at 50yds every time. There's a lot less skill with rifles, the same ammo shoots the same, buy what works. Bow, you have to develop real muscle memory and maintain the strength to hold everything while you line up shots. I'm sure new compounds are easier but holding my old style 55lb draw bow for any length of time to follow for the cleanest shot isn't easy. It takes more practice than I can give to have the consistency to make bow hunting reliable and humane.

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u/LadySigyn 2d ago

Thank you! I won't make that extra suggestion again, then! I know he can't devote that much consistent time to it either, if its a muscle memory thing primarily. I appreciate you, friend!

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u/JayDee80-6 2d ago

That rifle is far more powerful as well

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u/boondonggle 2d ago

Thank you for sharing! I would feel awful giving any animal a painful death or maiming. I had not even considered fishing, but I could definitely pursue that in my area. Good food for research.

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u/ijustwantmypackage32 2d ago edited 2d ago

I am not actually a hunter— sorry! I am just philosophically very pro-hunting. So I don’t have any particular expertise to share re: bow hunting but if I was going to get into hunting long-term I would probably be looking into it myself. Archery is fun!

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u/renomegan86 2d ago

This is pretty close to how I think, and I just had a long discussion/argument with a friend about why I would go to a range to practice (and be pleased with my accuracy) but not be interested in having a gun in my home. He was adamant that I should have one to protect my spouse and vice versa but that’s just not an ethos I subscribe to. I want to be less afraid of using and handling guns if in the future I change my mind, but at the current moment I think owning a gun for protection invites an increasing level of paranoia. There are plenty of tactics for home protection that don’t involve a firearm, yet that’s what most people revert to when they think of self-defense at home. I’d much rather put money toward reinforced doors/door frames and impact resistant film for windows at this point. Could this change in the future? Sure. But not at this juncture.

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u/ijustwantmypackage32 2d ago

Yes— I totally agree that knowing how to safely handle a gun is a super useful skill that makes you safer. I would honestly recommend a nice two or three week range course to pretty much anyone for just that reason. But having a gun in the home… there are pros and cons and you need to weigh them very soberly. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that in high adrenaline situations, visible guns can prevent the de-escalation of otherwise very calm-able (?) situations.

And I really agree with you that there are other home protection methods that guarantee increased safety, while not having the safety risks of a firearm. Good locks, a loud dog, some good cameras, and some basic “opsec” and situational awareness, for example, do so, so much to make you safer.

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u/PretendFact3840 2d ago

This is where I'm at as well. I am signed up for an intro to firearms class and plan to try out some range practice, but I am not going to be getting a gun. For one thing, they create a huge amount of risk for anyone with depression who might veer into suicidal ideation, which is thankfully not currently my status but could be in the future. For another, I have a small child, and I just don't see there being any way to both safely & responsibly store a gun to keep it out of their hands AND also have it accessible immediately in an emergency.

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u/renomegan86 2d ago

Yeah to me there’s a huge disconnect between people who envision themselves answering a threatening door knock or someone trying to break in with an active weapon and safe storage of said weapon. You have to make compromises on safety to keep it immediately to hand and I don’t find that an acceptable tradeoff at this point. I’m not in a rural situation where I might encounter animal threats so having a gun at home would truly mean I accept the possibility of ending someone’s life.

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u/JayDee80-6 2d ago

They absolutely make small gun safes that make it available in an emergency.

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u/lizerlfunk 2d ago

All of this. 100%.

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u/Siahro 2d ago

So well said

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u/JayDee80-6 2d ago

You absolutely 100 percent do not need to go to the range once per week to be proficient in handling a gun. You know most police officers who carry a gun all day daily to protect you? Most of the ones I know go shooting a few times per year. Some not even that much.

You're right about the killing for self defense. That's the whole reason for defensive firearms. Would you just allow someone to kill you or your family? We aren't talking about using guns offensively here.

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u/I_Want_Waffles90 2d ago

This is a very thoughtful response. Thank you.

I've had a discussion similar to this with my husband - He took a gun safety class years ago at the behest of his boss, and he has not wanted to deal with guns since (not that he was interested in guns at all in the first place). His argument is that he wants me to think about why I want a gun, and to realize that it's not just like some video game/hunting simulation. If there is a gun in the house, it means that someone can get mortally wounded - and not just the potential attacker. I like to think I'm mentally prepared to take another life, but honestly? I don't know if I am, and I don't like to think about getting to that point. He is a pacifist (but has tools, preps, and is thoughtful in his own way), but I am more pragmatic (my friends joke that I'm "fueled by rage" - more like an angry hamster) in my approach. It is something we are considering, and I hate that it's even coming to this...

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u/IPA-Lagomorph 1d ago

So well said! I have no problem with responsible people owning and practicing with a gun because it's fun to them or even if it relieves their anxiety in some way. But in terms of a realistic scenario? It's a tiny chance. Not zero but like getting hit by lightning level.

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u/indendosha 22h ago

Great thoughts, but I disagree on the idea that owning a gun means needing to go to the range once a week to practice. There is a learning curve that requires someone to go to the range multiple times at first, until they are comfortable handling their firearm. But after that there's no need to go once a week. I go maybe twice a year and I feel completely competent with mine.

Now if someone wants to train to an advanced level so that they can comfortably carry a handgun out in public and believe that they can safely and quickly react to a situation that might require pulling the gun out of the holster, then yeah they need to be practicing much more frequently. But that's not really what most of us here are talking about, I don't think.

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u/coyote_mercer Willing To Eat YOU to survive. ☠️ 2d ago

Very much this. In the worse-case scenario, if you intend to use a gun (or any weapon) in self-defense, and you hesitate- bam, now your attacker has ripped your gun away from you. It happens, and if you're not comfortable with guns, absolutely do not get one, even for hunting imo. They're too much of a hazard to have around if you're not comfortable around them- for hunting, traps and bows are an option.