WASHINGTON—Shedding light on the enduring appeal behind assault rifle ownership, a Pew study released Monday revealed that more Americans were buying AR-15s to defend themselves from toddlers who found their guns. “Many Americans stressed that they felt safer knowing they had an AR-15 at the ready in case their toddler stumbled across a shoebox holding a loaded gun on the floor of a closet and started firing away,” said researcher Jonathan Lieu, noting that the majority of AR-15 owners told his team they purchased the lightweight rifle due to their recurring fears about waking in the night to their 2-year-old giggling as they shot bullet holes through the bedroom door. “One response we often heard was that it was a Second Amendment right for gun owners to defend themselves against their own young children. They also stressed that a baseball bat or pepper spray simply wasn’t enough firepower to take down their gun-toting kids.” Lieu added that many Americans also rushed out to purchase tear gas grenades after their children inevitably got their hands on the AR-15s.

  • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I have always found it a bit bizarre how some Americans will proudly advertise the fact they have loads of very expensive things in their house.

    If I had a gun collection, and I live in a rural area with a lot of hunters so I assume plenty of my (European) neighbours do, I’d keep it quiet.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s because unfortunately, you only hear from the big mouths.

      A lot of gun owners are quiet. In my concealed carry classes, not a single person fit the stereotype or even spoke about our guns. We follow the “speak softly and carry a big stick” mantra

      • Touching_Grass@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What I find weird is that there’s only one type of gun owner. There is only one archetype and 100% of gun owners are that archetype

    • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s also very bizarre that the party that wants guns to protect themselves from tyranny also want to give the government more and bigger weapons instead of, you know, making them weaker.

      That’s when you realize that these assholes are not about protecting themselves. It’s about oppression.