Maryland House Democrats introduced a controversial gun safety bill requiring gun owners to forfeit their ability to wear or carry without firearm liability insurance.

Introduced by Del. Terri Hill, D-Howard County, the legislation would prohibit the “wear or carry” of a gun anywhere in the state unless the individual has obtained a liability insurance policy of at least $300,000.

"A person may not wear or carry a firearm unless the person has obtained and it covered by liability insurance issued by an insurer authorized to do business in the State under the Insurance Article to cover claims for property damage, bodily injury, or death arising from an accident resulting from the person’s use or storage of a firearm or up to $300,000 for damages arising from the same incident, in addition to interest and costs,” the proposed Maryland legislation reads.

    • @Coreidan
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      1610 months ago

      Ah yes. America. The only country in the world where it’s expected that everyone has a gun and can carry it every where they go.

      • @SkippingRelax
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        210 months ago

        Not the only one, somalia too.

        And instead of complaining for the lack of healthcare, they cry because they are going to tax your Colt and you are not allowed to take it to the supermarket anymore.

    • @RagingRobot
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      1010 months ago

      Idk I need to get insurance for my car because it might hurt someone. I think this makes sense and is a good step. You have a right to own guns but no one said it would be cheap.

      If you are poor buying a gun should not be your priority anyways. why do poor people need guns? It’s not like they are going out hunting for their food still.

      • @[email protected]
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        1510 months ago

        It’s obvious you’ve never lived in the hood lol. Poor income areas usually have the highest crime and often little to no police presence.

        • Zoot
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          10 months ago

          I’ve lived in the hood. BRANDISHING which is what this law for, would have you shot dead. Get the fuck outta here.

          Does it say I need insurance to own a shotgun, that is kept in my home? Because thats what I’d be using if I lived in the hood and felt afraid in my home

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            Many people who conceal carry and actually train with their firearms can draw and fire in about 1.5 seconds. That is fast enough that you won’t be shot dead in a lot of situations.

            Brandishing is dumb. If someone is going to draw their firearm, it should only ever be in a life or death situation, and they should be justified in using it immediately.

            Open carry is also just a bad idea everywhere, not just the hood.

            • Zoot
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              10 months ago

              1.5 seconds or not, now everyone knows you own a gun. A gun will never improve a situation.

              • @[email protected]
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                10 months ago

                You are right that guns rarely improve a situation, but sometimes we have to deal with the fact that we live in a cruel world where a lot of people carry guns and are desperate enough to use them on people.

                Personally, if I was being robbed and was conceal carrying, I would do everything I could to not escalate the situation. I would just slowly give them my stuff. But if I am trapped in a building with a mass shooter or something, I would rather try to defend my family and myself rather than just waiting to be executed.

                I respect your viewpoint on it, though.

                • Zoot
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                  210 months ago

                  I don’t believe, and also hope for your own sake, that a situation never arises where you need one. You have every right to be able to do so. In fact, this bill only makes it so in the event something goes wrong; insurance has got you covered.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    310 months ago

                    I sincerely appreciate the well wishes. I hope a situation never arises where I need one, either, and I kind of wish the world and our country wasn’t the way it is, but here we are. I also think this bill is not a terrible idea at all, maybe just needs to be ironed out a bit to consider low income people somehow.

                    I hope you have a great day, and wish you the best in life.

          • @vala
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            510 months ago

            Brandishing and carrying are not the same thing.

            • Zoot
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              10 months ago

              Open carrying in the hood is a great way to get shot. Being open about your weapons in the hood is a great way to get robbed.

              Semantics.

              If it came to you having to use your weapon in the first place, then you’re already dead. This bill is a good first step in curbing our rampant gun issues.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 months ago

            I never said anything about brandishing. I was responding to the above comment saying poor people don’t need to buy a gun.

            • Zoot
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              010 months ago

              No one needs a gun, but another barrier to entry is a plus in my book.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            Lol reread the article, this is for carrying, brandishing is what is known as a “criminal offense” and is “not covered by such liability insurance.” You want “insurance” against your literal crimes get a lawyer on retainer, but I know you’re just conflating carrying concealed, laugably, or open, with brandishing, which by all definitions involved particularly the legal (i.e important) ones, they are not the same thing.

            • Zoot
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              010 months ago

              My comment was directed at the person claiming having a gun in the hood is a necessity and that this bill stops them from that.

              I said brandishing because if you have a gun in the hood, whether or not its tucked in your shorts, holstered and concealed as is legal, or hanging from your balls out in the open, its a bad fucking idea.

              • @[email protected]
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                10 months ago

                My comment was directed at the person claiming having a gun in the hood is a necessity and that this bill stops them from that.

                Right, but you were the only person in the entire thread to mention brandishing, the comment you replied to is in relation to carrying, open or concealed, as is the article, and the law itself that we’re discussing, keep up buddy. Also:

                I’ve lived in the hood. BRANDISHING which is what this law for, would have you shot dead. Get the fuck outta here.

                Your comment was directed at him, but about this law, which is what I’m correcting you on.

                The hood being underpoliced and over-crimed necessitates the occasional defense of oneself, and the carrying required to do so. You can feel whatever way you want to about that, but sometimes it does have to happen, and does happen, regularly.

        • @RagingRobot
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          310 months ago

          Idk I lived in Baltimore for a while. I definitely felt more safe when guns weren’t around

      • @[email protected]
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        -210 months ago

        If you are poor buying a gun should not be your priority anyways. why do poor people need guns? It’s not like they are going out hunting for their food still.

        YEAH! Stupid fucking poors, if your neighborhood is so dangerous just get a better job and move to a gated community like the one RagingRobot here lives in! You’re too poor and stupid to handle protecting yourself anyway and since you’re so poor who cares if you die?

        • @RagingRobot
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          110 months ago

          Buying a gun only makes your neighborhood more dangerous

            • @RagingRobot
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              010 months ago

              Well it makes it much more likely that someone will be shot for one thing lol. The more guns in the neighborhood the more likely someone is getting shot or a child gets a hold of it by mistake. All kinds of stuff can happen and just introducing a gun to the situation statistically increases the chance someone gets hurt.

              • Storm of Hatred
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                210 months ago

                @RagingRobot i would prefer a working-class based self-armed force and I will be joining it for revolution. Giving up weapon only makes you unsafe.

                  • @agitatedpotato
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                    110 months ago

                    This is just might makes right ideaology. What about women? Should they be subjugated to the will of any criminal that happens to be stronger than them?

                • @SkippingRelax
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                  -110 months ago

                  Send us your address, all us lemmy users can chip in and and gift you a big big ass weapon for your 14th birthday next year

                • @RagingRobot
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                  210 months ago

                  Protect me from who? I have never been in a situation where I need to pull a gun on someone and I never will be. If someone wants to rob me they can I have insurance. They would really have no reason to want to kill me. I’m not anyone’s enemy.

                  What are you so scared of?

                  • Storm of Hatred
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                    110 months ago

                    @RagingRobot From Nazi’s militia, from school shooters, from your boss, your landlord and make sure your insurance really wants to pay for your claim.
                    Sounds like you scared of nothing? It only proves you are a landlord, business owner, or you are a white man from Nazi’s militia.

          • @[email protected]
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            010 months ago

            Great, so if someone tries to kill me I should just let them do it for a marginal “increase” in “neighborhood safety” (not my safety of course after I’m murdered.) That makes sense.

            • @RagingRobot
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              110 months ago

              What shitty thing did you do to someone that you think they want to kill you?

              • @[email protected]
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                010 months ago

                What shitty thing did Emitt Till do that made people want to kill him? What shitty thing did Harvey Milk do to make people want to kill him? JFK? MLK?

                What shitty thing did you do today? Victim blame.

                • @RagingRobot
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                  110 months ago

                  JFK was surrounded by people with guns and it didn’t help him one bit though. I wasn’t blaming anyone.

                  I was questioning why you are so scared?

                  • @[email protected]
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                    210 months ago

                    Oh word and that is what you’re putting forth as your theory of “what JFK did to make people want to kill him?” Interesting take on the conspiracy, can’t say I agree but you’re entitled to your own opinion. Personally I think he wasn’t shot at all, his head just did that.

        • @PoliticalAgitator
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          -110 months ago

          If guns make neighbourhoods safer, why isn’t America the safest country in the world by a huge margin?

          • @[email protected]
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            010 months ago

            Feel free to stay in the violence free paradise that you’ve found, but don’t tell anyone where this mythical utopia is or they’ll surely invade.

            • @PoliticalAgitator
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              10 months ago

              Don’t worry, it’s not a secret. It’s called “any other wealthy country with gun control (which is basically all of them)”.

              Sure, it’s not exactly violence free but the chances of your child being mutilated beyond recognition by a former “responsible gun owner” are close to zero.

              Even in the poorest communities, “gunshots or fireworks” just isn’t a thing. Even for the most despised minority groups, “this confrontation could escalate to murder before anyone could intervene” isn’t a thing.

              It’s way better.

              • @[email protected]
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                010 months ago

                Oh word y’all don’t have stabbings or rapes or anything in any other country at all? News to me.

                Sure, it’s not exactly violence free

                Ah gotcha, that’s what I thought. Call me when it is.

                • @PoliticalAgitator
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                  10 months ago

                  That didn’t take much prodding did it? You’ve just let slip your contempt for a lower crime rate, fewer murders and no monthly extremist killing as many minorities or children as they can.

                  I guess all your talk about criminals, rape, self defense and protecting minorities was just bullshit rhetoric after all.

                  If there’s no gun sales in it, you openly don’t care.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    210 months ago

                    Lower crime rates can exist in places with high rates of gun ownership, and high crime rates can exist without legal gun ownership at all. It’s almost like there are external factors and other differences between these countries that contribute to it, like wealth inequality or lack of social safety nets.

                    “Ohhh you don’t care”

                    Yeah well you don’t care if people get stabbed so we’re even then lol.

    • @Maggoty
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      610 months ago

      Nobody should be carrying as a routine.

        • @SkippingRelax
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          -110 months ago

          Is your gun keeping a third of your country at bay?

        • @PoliticalAgitator
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          -310 months ago

          If they see you with a firearm, it will be all these excuse they need.

          Don’t fall for the pro-gun bullshit. Equal access to firearms means nothing because violence always favors the biggest asshole.

          • @Olhonestjim
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            10 months ago

            Don’t tell transwomen how to live their lives. Whatever you are, you do not live up to your username.

            • @SkippingRelax
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              110 months ago

              Whiteknighting without adding anything? Should transwomen be allowed to say anything, and no one can disagree?

            • @PoliticalAgitator
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              -310 months ago

              Spare me the feigned alliance. You’re rushing to defend the gun lobby, not the trans community.

              • @Olhonestjim
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                LoL, is that all you’ve got left? You think conservatives ever encourage armed transpersons? After all I said to you, the courtesy I extended, you think it was all just bad faith? I wasn’t even rude. You’re as dense as any conservative. Read my history.

                What do you think John Brown would say to you? He was an agitator.

                • @PoliticalAgitator
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                  -110 months ago

                  Why would they care? They’re making millions of dollars off “armed leftists” who aren’t the slightest threat to them.

                  They put $16 million of those profits each year into the pockets of the most far-right Republicans running.

                  The far-right shitheads you’re enabling go on monthly killing sprees targeting minorities. Meanwhile, whats your Nazi body count? Zero?

                  Do you need some names and addresses? I can hook you up. I’m talking swastika tattoo, mask off, proud boys.

                  Face it, everything you’re doing is working out great for fascists. You couldn’t have been more help if you joined them.

                  But it’s all worth it right, because now the trans community is… oh, much less safe and accepted than they would be in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and most of Europe.

      • @Olhonestjim
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        510 months ago

        So long as there are actual Nazis around, there exists a strong argument for it.

        • @PoliticalAgitator
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          -310 months ago

          Nazis that have all the guns they could ever want and routinely go on killing sprees with them.

          So what exactly is the argument? That maybe one day, the gun laws that armed Nazis might disarm Nazis, even though they’he completely failed to for their last 5 years?

          Stop falling for bullshit gun-lobby marketing.

          • @Olhonestjim
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            10 months ago

            Fine, you can choose to be utterly helpless when the nazis break down your door, and you will then go wherever they tell you. But at that point you can feel free to stop pretending you own the high road. And stop telling those of us who would fight back effectively that we have no such right.

            The gun lobby absolutely does not market to people like me. Gun laws will never disarm nazis, only the minorites they wish to oppress.

            • @Maggoty
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              210 months ago

              This law isn’t about having guns in your house. It’s about having guns at the movie theater.

            • @PoliticalAgitator
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              Thanks for sharing your little hero fantasy with us but you and your guns have done absolutely fuck all to shield anyone from Nazis.

              But at that point you can feel free to stop pretending you own the high road

              Sounds like the day you’ve lost the high road, not me. You were going to shoot all the Nazis dead with your cool guns remember? Now they’re marching people off to camps.

              It’s such a difficult line of bullshit to work with isn’t it? You need to proclaim the Nazis are coming, and that only guns can stop them, but they can’t stop you with their guns, that they purchased from the same store, under the same gun-lobby authored laws.

              And stop telling those of us who would fight back effectively that we have no such right.

              Oh you’re going to “fight back effectively” are you? So share with us all what your skills are. We don’t know for certain they include “able to safely possess a competently use a firearm” because they’re pro-gun community insist that shouldn’t be a requirement.

              Tell us all about the soldier these dead kids have bought us. Do you have any skills besides “gun”? Any military training? Can you set up a secure communication network? Are you able to administer basic first aid? Can you fly a drone? Fuck, tell us what you weigh.

              Convince us that the fattest, shittest, most entitled army the world has ever seen is going to keep us safe from the people they almost certainly voted for.

              • @Olhonestjim
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                10 months ago

                It’s so strange that you think armed leftists have anything in common with your fairly accurate image of right wing chuds.

                It is not the job of armed leftists to shield you from nazis. That job is for you and your mighty pens. Great job on that, by the way.

                None of us have ever claimed to be heroes who are gonna kill all the nazis with our big bad guns. Self defense is not an offensive act. There are no nazis currently breaking in my door to drag me away. Do you expect me to go out seeking murder? Hell no. Now is the time to dismantle their propaganda networks, prosecute their leaders, bankrupt those who fund them, raise the minimum wage, establish single payer healthcare, safeguard human rights, separate church and state, and once and for all make bigotry and hate speech utterly illegal. We had best get on that.

                No armed leftist has ever advocated for untrained irresponsible gun ownership.

                You talk as if you think I expect to survive a Nazi coup. That world is not worth living in. Such a battle may very well be hopeless, but if your politicians fail to prevent it, it must be fought. No, I have no unprovable claims of competency for you to ridicule. I have nothing to prove. I’m not a badass. I expect to ensure that I do not go where they tell me. Rather the opposite.

                Despite being a socialist, I have never voted for anyone except Democrats since 2000. You’re welcome.

                I see you still have offered no viable solutions. I hope your pen is sharp.

                • @PoliticalAgitator
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                  -310 months ago

                  It’s so strange that you think armed leftists have anything in common with your fairly accurate image of right wing chuds

                  Sure they do – their opinions came out of the same sleazy boardrooms dedicated to maximising profits. They just replaced the conservative shit like “god” and “nuclear family” with “minorities” and you lapped it up just as eagerly.

                  It is not the job of armed leftists to shield you from nazis. That job is for you and your mighty pens. Great job on that, by the way.

                  Good to hear you admitting you’re going to do fuck all except push hollow rhetoric.

                  But hey if you want me and my pen to stop the Nazis firing semi-automatic rifles into crowds of innocent people, we’re happy to write up the new gun laws to prevent it.

                  At the very least, you could stop bankrolling the pro-gun lobby and their army of lawyers. Maybe you could skip the middleman and just donate $16 million a year directly to Republicans?

                  None of us have ever claimed to be heroes who are gonna kill all the Nazis with our big bad guns. Self defense is not an offensive act.

                  A comment that doesn’t even hold true in this single comment section, let alone the rolling plains of AstroTurf that “leftist gun owners” call home.

                  No armed leftist has ever advocated for untrained irresponsible gun ownership.

                  I started to reply to this but then I realized just how fucking slimey it is. You’ve carefully positioned yourself to claim “even though we demand that training and responsibility remain entirely optional, a true leftist advocates gun safety”.

                  Presumably by tutting at people on the internet.

                  • @Olhonestjim
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                    10 months ago

                    You’re clearly determined never to listen. You refuse to accept that any gun owner could possibly not be a fat, stupid, fascist piece of shit. Good luck to you.

        • @Maggoty
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          010 months ago

          Guns are practical tools in rural areas. In town though? Nah.

    • @PopcornTin
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      210 months ago

      When they say “our democracy is at stake,” they don’t mean all Americans. They mean them and their friends’.

    • @PoliticalAgitator
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      -210 months ago

      And how many guns have you donated to the homeless? You’re absolutely fine with gun ownership having a cost, as long as you can afford it.

      • @[email protected]
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        110 months ago

        Things have a cost, there’s the materials, and unless you are a proponent of slave labor someone had to make the thing. This applies to literally everything. No shit “EvErYtHiNg IsN’t FrEe,” but everything can be donated if you so choose. The problem with donating guns to the homeless though is it’s technically illegal since you do not know if they can legally possess firearms, they may be a felon or “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.” (ATF Form 4473 question 21f.) Or question 21g for that matter, “Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?” Or 21h “Have you ever been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions?” Or 21j “Have you ever been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, or are you or have you ever been a member of the military and been convicted of a crime that included, as an element, the use of force against a person as identified in the instructions?”

        • @PoliticalAgitator
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          -310 months ago

          So what is your tantrum about? The things have a cost that is now higher.

          I genuinely can’t figure out what you were expecting with that argument. Do you think guns are sold for the cost of materials and labor?

          • @[email protected]
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            010 months ago

            Tantrum? Lmao cute.

            Yes, and higher cost = harder for poors.

            This isn’t rocket surgery my dude. Keep pretending you’re an idiot idgaf, you know and I know you know.

            • @PoliticalAgitator
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              -210 months ago

              You made it clear “the poors” were nothing but a prop when you rushed to justify a for-profit firearms industry.

              • @[email protected]
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                110 months ago

                Lmao you expect things to be handed out for free, then start to donating or advocate for firearms to be provided to all by the government. However evidentially you expect an industry to continue on it’s own without the money with which to sustain itself and grow, well wish in one hand and shit in the other see which fills up first.

                You champion that government rifle providing program and I’ll be your first backer, but “things cost money” isn’t the gotcha you think it is.

                What, do you think I’m rich? I’m poor as fuck, I had to save up to buy a gun, like most Americans I live paycheck to paycheck, adding ~$50 a month for some horse shit is definitely more of a problem financially than saving $20 a paycheck for a year on top of the monthly ~$50 I’d be required and you can stop pretending that isn’t the case anytime, I live it, you can’t fool me.

                • @PoliticalAgitator
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                  -110 months ago

                  Isn’t it funny how when you complain about a cost being too high, it isn’t “expecting things to be handed out for free” but if I suggest it, the standards change?

                  But you want to know some more things that aren’t free? Sewing up bullet holes. Cleaning children’s blood and brains from their classroom floor. Processing the 4 women who are murdered by their partners in America each day. Locking down a mall because someone who couldn’t get their dick sucked bought an AR-15.

                  Maybe its time for the fucking gun owners to pay.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    110 months ago

                    Because “not charging me extra for mandatory insurance” isn’t a physical item or even a service. It’s literally the opposite of that actually, it’s “explicitly not providing goods or services.” I didn’t say “make the insurance free” which would have made this little “gotcha” make sense, I said “unduly increasing the costs arbitrarily will disproportionately negatively affect poor people.” You’re really bad at this.

                    Sewing up bullet holes. Cleaning children’s blood and brains from their classroom floor. Processing the 4 women who are murdered by their partners in America each day. Locking down a mall because someone who couldn’t get their dick sucked bought an AR-15.

                    WeLl ThEn MayBe We ShOuLd MaKe It FrEe.