U.S. Senate candidate wants to buy guns for homeless people - Polidicks

A Michigan man running as a Libertarian for U.S. Senate says he wants to raise money to buy 20 pump style shotguns for homeless individuals. "Not only are the homeless constantly under threat from would-be criminals," says Brian Ellison, "but they are also under threat from governments at various levels that criminalize activities that homeless people rely on for survival." Ellison says he has no fears that the guns would be misused, for example, to shoot police who are trying to move people off an illegal encampment. "I don't know why the homeless are viewed as such a different type of people as the rest of us," he says. "I carry a gun with me all the time, and I don't victimize anyone. I wouldn't expect that the homeless would use their weapons to fight off the police who are asking them to leave. I think the homeless would use their weapons to protect themselves from being victims of violent crimes." Ellison acknowledges his campaign, "Arm the Homeless," has shock value that will bring attention to his campaign. But he says as a third-party candidate going up against well-funded Democratic and Republican opponents, shock value is about the only thing he can do to get media coverage. Source: http://michiganradio.org/post/us-senate-candidate-wants-buy-guns-homeless-people https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1996/bed51bcf-ed78-408a-a459-116bc4d69398/image.png

I wish we still had :terrists: As for the article - what an exceptionally retarded idea.

Not the worst idea considering that homeless people are disproportionately victims of violence - something that policing has failed to address (not to mention instances where police are instigating violence against the homeless).

Utterly stupid. We could, y'know, actually invest in housing so that they aren't homeless?

We should be putting out legislation that gets the homeless on their feet and off the streets, not give them guns. It's such a band-aid fix that it doesn't help the actual situation in the slightest. He's only saying it to get media coverage. It's a ridiculously stupid plan.

...plus, some of the homeless could have mental health issues. And, they have nowhere to safely store guns to prevent other people from trying to steal them.

I was so concerned about government tyranny that I stopped paying rent and put the money into an AR-15 instead, now I live on the streets of Detroit but damned if I ain't safer

This is really stupid and only demonized them as parasites for both Middle and Rich classes.

I always liked this strategy. Methods that lean towards gun control will always irritate the Republicans and the NRA, and are hard to legislate in the US. So why not take the piss and undertake a completely different approach, and put guns in the hands of people which Republicans and the NRA may consider as ‘undesirables’? I mean, it’s their second amendment right to bear arms, is it not? Reminds me of the Black Panther Party. Not giving them praise, just mentioning that their open-carry policy to deter police brutality caused even Republican legislators to consider implementing gun control.

I do agree with you; however, in the interim between now and someone with compassion being elected into a position of power, I have no issue with homeless people being able to defend themselves from others with lethal force.

It's a second amendment right to use guns. There's no right for you to be given a gun.

Wouldn't they be better off with the money for the gun in their hand? "Hey there buddy. I see your on hard times. So I got something for you, no it's not medical, financial and housing assistance. It's a shotgun. Clutch this while your freezing under an overpass."

in what way is giving guns to homeless people a principle of small government

Frankly I don't think either is that great of an idea, given the propensity towards substance abuse that many homeless have, which is where the money would go. The money could be better spent on rehabilitation and re-integration programs for the homeless.

Ok, sure, teacher get guns so why not homeless! Fantastic idea! -If you're a fucking imbecile with no idea what they're even doing. Like, what insane moon logic is this?

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110302/f4fc63f6-1efd-4cab-8a8e-ff926a3a0123/image.png

gun nuts: it's not a gun problem, it's a mental illness problem also gun nuts: let's give guns to mentally ill homeless people

That movie was fantastic. It is exactly what it says it is. I wanted a movie about a hobo with a shotgun, and I got exactly that.

Really we should be recruiting our homeless to become androids with artificial intelligence to hunt down everyone suspected of causing harm to society. Then we'd truly be safe.

Homeless people also have a disproportionately high rate of mental illness. So, what could possibly go wrong?

What kind of batshit insane person would... "A Michigan man running as a Libertarian..." Oh......

There has never been a strong, established link between mental illness and being the perpetrator of violence. In fact, the opposite has been shown, that the mentally ill are disproportionately the victim of violence. It's quite ableist to imply that somehow mentally ill people are going to be violent when given access to firearms when there is no evidence to suggest that they are disproportionately violent in the first place.

Let's just issue every American a gun at birth.

Just to be clear: you're advocating that we should be giving people suffering from severe mental illnesses deadly weapons and setting them loose in the streets, yes?

That's one way to frame it if you like to stigmatise mental illness I suppose. It also does make the assumption that all homeless people suffer from 'severe mental illness' which is for one, not actually the case, and for another, not something that's bad or wrong, which is what you're implying in your post. How I might phrase it is: if we cannot adequately provide housing and protection to homeless people - who are among the most vulnerable population in our society - then providing them with a means to protect themselves from violence - of which they are disproportionately a victim of - is something that I support over leaving them with absolutely nothing.

You can't be serious can you? Do you seriously think that it's a rational idea to give potentially mentally unstable and desperate people lethal weapons? You do not see anything that could possibly go wrong?

1) I am not stigmatizing mental illness, I am stating that people who are mentally ill, by definition, are not of sound mind. People who are not of sound mind should be entrusted with deadly weapons, for reasons that I thought were, up to this moment, completely obvious to every breathing human being on the planet. 2) I am not making an assumption that all homeless people are mentally ill, I am stating that there is a dispropportionately high rate of mental illness among homeless people. If I were making that assumption, however, it wouldn't be all that radical of a generalization, because as many as 46% of homeless people live with some form of serious mental illness. 3) Don't try to spin this as a "this or nothing" game, because that's completely bonkers. The choices on the table are not, "give homeless people guns," or, "let homeless people die." There are so many things we could be doing, big and small, that would make homelessness less dangerous, less common, and more easy to recover from. Not a single of those things need involve arming them, and it's ludicrous to suggest otherwise.

This is going to sound like a joke, but I swear on me mum it's the truth: I once observed (participated in) a multi-page debate on this website on whether or not BLIND people should be allowed to carry guns. That was almost as goofy as this discussion.

At this rate, America is going to become one of those dystopian 1980's sci-fi/action movies.

Mentally ill people are not more or less likely to be violent towards others. If you really want me to dig up a token source for this I guess I can, but I'm sure that you are aware of this phenomenon. If they are less likely to be violent towards others, then there really isn't that good of a reason to prevent them from having access to firearms. The only valid reason I can think of - which is quite a valid reason - is that people with mental illness are at a higher risk of suicide; however, that's not the point that you were implying. Even though you didn't explicitly state it, your posts are implying that somehow there'd be an increase in violence if mentally ill people had access to guns, which there isn't any evidence to support. You are quite right that homeless people are disproportionately at risk of being mentally ill - that's true and I haven't intended to imply anything to the contrary. However, I do take issue with your previous posts implying that most or all of the homeless population suffers from a mental illness that would predispose them to violence. Violent behaviour is not at all a symptom or result of the vast, vast majority of mental illnesses (even 'serious' ones). I'm also not 'spinning' this into an all-or-nothing game. For the vast majority of homeless people, who disproportionately represent the most vulnerable of the population (those with mental illness; those in extreme poverty; people of colour; people with disability; members of the LGBTQIA community), it is an all-or-nothing game, because there is not a strong enough support structure in place for them. When there's no way to support these people, to get them a home, and when the police are not only neglectful of the epidemic of violence towards homeless people (at best, often they are the perpetrators of such violence), then the difference between life or death can come down to having adequate means of protection. I have said this before and I will say this again; I don't think providing the homeless population with arms is going to fix the societal issues that cause people to become homeless. However, in the absence of a strong, stable support and protection system for the homeless, then I'll support any measure that could help save lives. Being homeless doesn't make you any less of a person, and if you live in a country where you have the right to bear arms, then I don't see an issue with people helping the marginalised have access to that right.