#you could never even dream of the type of discourse that comes from insular groups of people who know a lot about one specific thing

[softpine]

the amount of knowledge in guns you need to have to weave that into the story is fascinating to me. I don’t even know what racking a gun is (I do however know a whole bunch about obscure physics theorems) anyway I just think it’s neat how far we go into research to write things that make sense

i'm still not sure if i got everything correct, but no one has told me otherwise fjkjsd you've definitely heard the sound of a shotgun racking if you've watched any movie with guns in it, it's that "ch-chuck" kinda sound. what i didn't know is that there's apparently a huge debate in the home defense gun community over whether you should keep your gun loaded and racked or just loaded (don't bother mentioning safeties, they'll call you slurs...). the true benefit of not racking the gun would be if a little kid gets a hold of it, they're not going to know how to rack it therefore even if they pulled the trigger they hopefully wouldn't be able to shoot anything (in MY opinion this is idiotic; the chance that the gun would go off anyway is never zero, especially if they've ever seen their parents shooting and decide to copy their movements, as kids love to do). then some people think you should wait to rack it until you know there's an intruder in your house because the mere sound of it will make them go "oh shit" and just leave. people on the other side of the argument think this is pointless and only serves to reveal your position (but uhhh fyi, in some states you're supposed to give them a verbal warning and/or try to escape before using deadly force anyway). and they say you shouldn't be owning a gun if you're not prepared to use it as anything other than a sound effect. plus i saw some people say that you need that 1 extra round in the chamber or you might run out, which.... most pump shotguns hold 3 - 5 rounds so.. it just seems excessive to me, i can't imagine shooting up to 5 times and missing all of them?? in that case dude i think you're just fucked and 1 extra try is not going to help you lmao

the time factor is the most compelling argument to me, obviously if you're asleep and you hear someone break in and enter your bedroom, your gun is useless unless it's ready to shoot right this second. but the chances of this happening are just so slim and you know what would be even more effective?? a home alarm system so no one can possibly make it to your bedroom without you knowing about it. i saw a lot of people say they keep a loaded shotgun under their bed for this scenario. i'm a paranoid fuck and i've always lived in areas with high crime rates so i get it, but that's why i keep a maglite next to me while i sleep so in the incredibly unlikely event that someone breaks in without me hearing it, i can you know. whack them. do i ever think i'll need to do that? no but it makes me feel safer than having a loaded and chambered gun with no safety on lmao that would make me feel incredibly UNsafe... also i don't want to make this too dark but while i was in high school i knew FIVE kids who died because of their parents guns, one way or another. that is just unacceptable to me. we also had a gun go off at school and even though no one was hurt, that was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life because obviously in the moment we all heard a gunshot and thought it was an intentional school shooting. so anyway, me and guns do not get along but it's fascinating to research

but yeah as you can see i fell down the rabbit hole!! the things you do for writing jfksjds i did not need to go that far with it, but it was interesting!

#even if you're not a writer i highly recommend just deep-diving into some random hobby community every now and then #you could never even dream of the type of discourse that comes from insular groups of people who know a lot about one specific thing #very interesting #asks #anonymous #nonsims #brandi answers #guns tw