Most people should fire a gun (preferably something small and easy, like a .22 rifle) at least once in their lives and know a bit about them.  Like if you’re really scared I get it, but I also think a lot of people are culturally distanced from parts of the culture that use guns and get really shitty and condescending/unnecessarily terrified because they aren’t actually familiar with them and only associate them with really scary situations.

I mean there are a lot of shit arguments from the pro-gun side too, but it’s like a matter of cultural distance and people not really knowing the other side and why they are the way they are and like… it’s a darn shame.

Like people’s perceptions of say AR-15s are really weird.  They’re just a rifle that uses a midsize cartridge rather than a full size rifle cartridge which means they’re easier to shoot accurately if you’re small, like me, or while moving.  The civilian models are semi-automatic (meaning that instead of having to use a bolt or a pump to chamber the next bullet it does it automatically, personally I slightly prefer a good well designed bolt action, meaning one that suits my long fingernails for accuracy reasons, it’s a very nice rifle). It’s appropriate for hunting and for target shooting.  They do jam easily and require a lot of cleaning though.

Also a lot of guns get called AR-15s that aren’t by news and I don’t know why.