If owning a gun is a right, should guns be subsidized for the low income?

[arendt]

1. I diaried this at Kos a few weeks ago

Let them eat lead

Last summer, the conservative Heritage Foundation tried to argue that if you own a microwave oven, you are not poor. This disingenuous argument was made to support even more vicious means testing to prevent poor people from getting any assistance. People pointed out that a microwave can be purchased for as little as $30, i.e., for less than a bottle of good gin.

With that in mind, let's go over the economics of gun ownership.

From what I have learned over the past few days, ammo costs about $0.25 per round; and bulk discounts kick in at 1,000 rounds or $250. Some posters on boards I frequent have said they regularly go through 1,000 or more rounds per week in target shooting. Right there, you are talking about spending $1,000 month on your hobby. That is almost a month's wages for someone making minimum wage.

Now, of course, if you are going to shoot that much, you want a decent gun. Again, from the last two days, I gather that Glocks cost about $500; and 100 round drum magazines cost about $100. I did not see a number for an AR-15; but I'm going to guess its in the same price range.

So, the buy in to be minimally armed for vigilante combat is $750 - $500 for the gun and $250 for some bullets. I'm not even counting the costs of going to a gun range or paying for licenses. Order of magnitude, for a person at the poverty line, that is about one month's disposable income. But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that some poor person can afford to do this.

Can you imagine the outcry from the likes of the Heritage Foundation when that well-armed poor person runs afoul of the law in some "stand your ground" situation? The slander will start with the financial irresponsibility or criminal intent of such a purchase by such a person. It really does matter who does the shooting.

Not much comment there; but I will love to see the reaction from the Gungeon.

Ducking and covering.