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Unless you're in a militia, owning an AR-15 is just LARPing
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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Unpopular Opinion
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I was in the US military for 20 years. The Air Force, specifically. We trained with the M16A2 rifle for years, then later upgraded to the M4 rifle. The AR-15 is the civilian variant of those rifles, so I bought one to train in my own personal time. Pretty much the only difference is the AR-15 doesn't have a burst mode, which shoots 3 rapid-fire rounds per trigger pull. That's illegal to own in the civilian sector.
The military had us train on the weapon only once every couple years, and then later, they decided to save money on ammo by only training us if/when we deployed. And training was a day-long course of breaking apart the weapon, reassembling it, then firing on the range and qualifying with targets. Hardly enough time to practice.
My wife also served, but she had very little experience with guns in general and was barely passing her qualifications. She's a small lady and had trouble holding up the large weapon. So I bought the AR-15 so we could practice at home. I even added a bull barrel to it, which adds 5lbs to the rifle, to help train her arm strength for the M4 qualifications.
We're both recently retired now, but we're living in Minnesota near the Twin Cities, so I'm glad to have my AR-15 readily available. I pray I never have to use it in defense, but it's an option if things go sideways in my home state. There are already civilians here defending their street corners with AR-15s on display, to deter ICE from patrolling the neighborhoods.
I'm really curious, what else do you think has to happen there before you consider it sideways ?
I'm specifically referring to a civil war breaking out. We're trying to stay peaceful as long as possible here. As long as protestors aren't attacking ICE, Trump has no (legitimate) excuse to send in active duty troops, which he had been threatening to do.
The MN National Guard has been mobilized by our governor and are prepared to deal with active duty military if Trump sends them anyway. That's the whole point of the National Guard; it's a state's protection against an overreaching federal government.
If all that fails, then citizens themselves need to protect one another. And that is when things have truly gone sideways.
Things are messed up right now, but there's still a chance to recover from this. Once actual war breaks out against our civilian population, that's when we're truly fucked.
Serious question here not trying to be a troll/dick. It feels like a one sided war already. ICE has killed or wounded multiple people now and nothing has been done about it. In fact those in power have said nothing will be done about it. The police force seems to be on the side of ICE (please correct me if I'm wrong I'm not in MN) At what point do we draw a line and say enough is enough, take one of ours we take one of yours. I'm asking because I don't know, it just feels like we are all yelling and marching and not much is changing.
As a former military member, I can attest that there are escalation measures in every conflict. Every act might trigger a response from the opposition. So it's very important to weigh every action carefully before performing it.
In this particular situation, escalation appears to be the end goal of Trump. He wants people to rise up, because it gives him an excuse to declare Martial Law and shut down blue states, as well as stopping elections from continuing until the "escalation" is under control.
Think of Star Wars, Episode III. Palpatine was a senator, causing mayhem and chaos in the background to cause civil unrest among the Republic. Once he was outed as a Sith Lord, he survived the assassination attempt on his life and used the attack and disfigurement of his face to convince the government to grant him temporary emergency control of the government until the "threat of the Jedi Order" was under control. Then he conveniently forgot to return his emergency powers, declared himself emperor, and formed the Galactic Empire.
This is kind of what Trump is doing, in a sense. Martial Law is emergency military control over a nation granted to an individual. Elections aren't held during Martial Law. If Trump can enact Martial Law and prevent us from holding the November elections, he can further solidify his power over the US. He's already started up the "we shouldn't have elections" rhetoric again.
ICE is already violating the law, breaking our Fourth Amendment rights, and kidnapping people in the streets. The federal government has given them a free pass to do it. But they're just waiting for us to have enough and act in anger or violence in return so Trump can send in active duty military members to take over control of the state.
We can't let it get that far, so we're doing everything in our power to protest peacefully and hold the line. Eventually, he'll realize he won't get his way and he'll move on. Or he'll push ahead anyway and we'll have more of an excuse to end his dictatorial reign.
Right now, we're just gathering evidence. When this is all over, we can use the legal system to punish all involved in the human rights violations. But as long as Trump is in power, we just have to hold the line and document everything. It seems like nothing is happening right now, but we're letting Trump "Fuck Around," so later he can "Find Out."