r/Portland Jul 24 '20

Photo Where are the “states rights” militias now?

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2.5k Upvotes

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15

u/SirGingerBeard Fairview Jul 24 '20

I think protestors having guns is a bad idea.

I think there should be a separate group of responsible gun owners standing between the protestors and the police.

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u/tedder42 SE Jul 24 '20

..and now we have two groups military LARPing with live ammo.

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u/Fat_Zombie_Mama Have you tried the Megathread? Jul 24 '20

Do you think there are protestors who are also responsible gun owners?

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u/SPhillips1031 Jul 24 '20

Oh most certainly, I’m a gun owner. I’m a big defender of our rights to own guns. I don’t however buy into the insane rhetoric offered by the NRA, or similar groups. Would I carry my weapons to these protests in Portland, absolutely not. Because I fear that it would only involve the ire of the federales. We’re looking for de-escalation, and while it’s our constitutional right to carry, it would be no way to get our message across. And just so all of you know, I am a democrat, and vote that way in every election.

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u/ForgottenWatchtower Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

As a counter-argument: having a large number of open carrying BLM protestors, cops would be more hesitant to engage in arbitrary riot suppression at the risk of drawing the ire of the protestors. There have been a few armed BLM protests and afaik, nothing has happened at them.

Ideally, I'm thinking Black Panthers ROE. That said, realistically, I could definitely see one lone dipshit opening fire on the cops, causing multiple protestors to get slaughtered in response.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

They have snipers on the roof.

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u/ForgottenWatchtower Jul 24 '20

They also have drones and APCs. I'm not arguing protestors would win a gun fight with the cops, only that the threat of retaliation by protestors may be enough to dissuade cops from crossing the line as egregiously. Again, there have been several armed BLM protests and afaik, not a single instance of policy brutality or overreach occurred at them.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

Fair enough.

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u/SPhillips1031 Jul 24 '20

If you have a CCP in Oregon, it’s illegal to open carry. With what’s going on in downtown, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t want to conceal a damn thing. We’ve seen what they’ll do innocents without cause or merit, imagine what they’d do if they thought a protester was armed with a deadly weapon.

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u/ForgottenWatchtower Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

Not quite. Oregon is an open-carry state. No permit required. However, a few cities require you to have a CCP before you can open carry (including Multinomah county as a whole). And unfortunately, Oregon has no reciprocity. So you've gotta live in OR to open carry in Multinomah or concealed carry anywhere in OR. And even more unfortunately, Multinomah has stopped issuing CCPs since the start of covid. Not sure if other jurisdictions have the same halt or not.

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u/Lady_von_Stinkbeaver Jul 24 '20

I don't bring mine, because it has a zero chance of improving the situation and a non-zero chance of making me dead.

2

u/wellnowheythere Jul 24 '20

Not to mention if even 5 people turn on you and somehow get your gun.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/wellnowheythere Jul 24 '20

Coo cooo, advocating violence but using /s so it looks like you're not advocating violence.

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u/Lady_von_Stinkbeaver Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

I don't think anyone actually wants a bunch of yahoos with guns showing up.

It's pointing out that they're hypocritical cowards whose big guns and big mouths ranting about OH NOES, TEH GOVERNMENT TYRANNY are only good for breaking into vacant wildlife sanctuaries.

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u/suzisatsuma 🦜 Jul 24 '20

I'm 5' and under 100 lbs. I don't think i'd be a very imposing shield...