I’m pretty much the same. Cats are terrible creatures and I would never intentionally own one. But I’m not going to hold it against my partner’s two cats that they are cats, so they get scritches and nap times with me.

Why? What does it do to further his argument? What does he gain? Consider the reasons why someone would choose to unconceal their firearm. It shouldn’t be a fashion piece to just show off.

For any number of reasons, the most obvious and likely of which is that he was simply emphasizing his point about carrying a weapon for self-defense. The least likely and most ridiculous reason, the one you seem stuck on, is that he was threatening a group of kids.

Why? What does it do to further his argument? What does he gain?

Why don’t you spend some time applying some of that critical thinking to why he would threaten a group of kids?

I assume to emphasize the point about having a weapon to defend oneself. You don’t have to agree with that point, but you don’t get to automatically jump to it being some kind of threat.

care to explain how calling attention to being armed, isn’t on some level intended to shock or scare school kids?

Yes, ffs, just go watch the video. I shouldn’t even have to explain this. He said something about self-defense, some kid goes “like carrying a gun”? He says “yes, in fact I’m carrying right now” and briefly revealed the gun on his side. A reasonable person would interpret that as him demonstrating that he does the thing that he himself advocates for. Nobody felt threatened by that. This group of kids didn’t gasp at seeing the gun and run away. They didn’t even take a step back. They stood there and kept arguing with him.

Simply opening his jacket was “using” in that sense. “I’m armed right now!! [SEE?]” there was absolutely zero reason, as far as legitimate policy arguments go, that flashing that pistol bolstered… and a reasonable belief, by members of this group, that he was indeed threatening them

lol, just stop. You’re embarrassing yourself. I already explained the reason why he showed it and covered why it’s obvious that no one standing there felt threatened.

Will this guy get off because “i didn’t mean it that way?” Absolutely. because he’s rich(ish), white, and in a conservative stronghold that likes this sort bullshit.

He’ll get off because he didn’t do anything that anyone could even make a plausible argument is illegal. (Sorry, but your arguments here are all implausible at best.)

I’m pretty sure you’re missing the point. Like I said, simply showing someone a weapon is not brandishing. There has to be an intent to intimidate. The video of this interaction makes it plainly obvious that there was no intention on the part of this politician to intimidate anyone.

I’m pretty sure you’re missing the point. How is it that you can cite that and yet your brain competely glosses over that there was obviously no attempt to intimidate anyone in this instance?

That’s not a particularly relevant example. If you and I were having a discussion about one’s right to self-defense, and I ask you “like by carrying a knife”, and you say “yes, in fact I’m carrying a knife right now” and you show me, I’m not going to feel threatened. (Which is actually exactly what happened in this instance.)

You’re making a distinction without a difference. Nobody has any fucking clue who their “genetic match” will be nor does anyone have any fucking clue who else is using 23andMe. Sharing that information with other 23andMe users is not meaningfully different than just sharing it with the world at large.

I’m entirely failing to see the “wrong” in demonstrating that he himself carries a weapon when asked about carrying a weapon. There are no doubt plenty of reasons to dislike this guy, but this example is little more than people like you trying really, really hard to make something out of nothing.

You’re also missing something very important. A lot of the things these people see as “their problems” have been implanted into their heads by shitheads on talk radio, TV, social media, YouTube, etc for the benefit of the wealthy. If you’re too busy worrying about trans people and illegal immigrants, you’re not going to pay much attention to the rich fucks paying you a pittance and hoovering up the planet’s resources for themselves.

You have to understand that conservative media right now barely features anything that Trump actually has said or done. It’s all made up bullshit and mythology about him and how great his is. My own mother consumes this media all the time and has told me that Trump looks healthier and stronger than ever. That’s what these people are being fed.

They’re too busy consuming media that tells them that he’s basically the second coming of Jesus.

The right move is for the GOP clowns in Congress to actually agree to do something about it. That said, the idea that nothing is being does is just plain idiotic. There are around 20,000 border patrol agents. What exactly is it you think they spend their time doing?

…because those 7 million people opted into sharing their data with everyone else.

What could the other possible intent be?

Did you see the video of the interaction? He said something along the lines of “I want you to be able to defend yourself”, then a student asks “Do you mean by carrying a gun?” and he says, “Yes, I’m carrying right now.” If you did watch that video and came away saying it must have been a threat, you’re not have a good faith discussion.

No, that’s not how it works. Merely showing someone a gun is not “brandishing”. A very simple example demonstrates how silly your claim is. Gun stores exist and involve the employee handling and showing people many guns. No one would call that “brandishing”.

Yes, as it turns out, becoming the elected leader of millions/billions of people does get you some special treatment that you didn’t get before.

those people aren’t our friends. They’re known to chant “Death to America”. They include the kind of terrorists who would commit the October 7th attacks, and most Palestinians support that kind of terrorism.

Why do you think that is?

This is more than likely him getting started with reining Israel in. I expect more serious measures to follow soon.

Sorry? I left it out? You replied three times to me tilling me im wrong. You saw the link.

Hey, you can’t just post a link to a law and hope that nobody actually looks at it. There’s nothing in the Indiana law that you linked to that supports what you claimed.

Verbally threatening some one is use of force. Threatening with a gesture is use of force. In every state I’m aware of- which is about twenty, specifically- all treat a threat to use a fire arm as the same as using a fire arm

Threatening requires…an actual threat. Just showing someone a gun is not a threat. I would challenge you to show me a law that says “showing someone a gun is a threat”. The laws I looked up said that threatening someone with a gun is a threat.

I have always been trained to never (intentionally) expose a concealed fire arm (unless a cop is asking you to.) precisely because the gesture is easily misunderstood as a threat.

The police are not a great standard for what should be considered a threat, nor are there any laws out there that say, “it’s a threat if a police officer would consider it a threat”.