Don't Panic: A guide to becoming an armed leftist in the United States ahead of the 2024 elections.

We've recently seen an uptick in leftists and liberals of all stripes becoming interested in being armed in the wake of the Supreme Court's Trump v. United States ruling granting the President near total immunity for “official acts.” The SCOTUS ruling dropping mere days after President Biden's disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on prime time television has led to panic and renewed interest in self-defense similar to what we saw in 2016 and 2020. Alongside this renewed interest, we've also seen fear mongering and some incredibly bad advice being handed out.

This article is not designed to be an exhaustive plan of action but rather a primer for the leftist or liberal that might think 2024 is the year to become a responsible gun owner.

# 1: Stop Fed Posting

This is basic and shouldn't have to be stated but we're still here out of necessity. There have been a multitude of leftists postulating on social media about sending Seal Team 6, for instance, to assassinate Donald Trump based on an example provided in the Trump v. United States dissenting opinion. Once you put something out there on the internet (Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, etc.) it's out there forever even if the original post is deleted. If you're posting something actionable online and wouldn't want it read out loud in a courtroom in front of a judge, you probably shouldn't post it. If you're about to post something of dubious legality, it might be best to walk away and come back to it later to decide if it's still worth sharing. If Trump is re-elected and our greatest authoritarian fears are realized, let's not give the state the ammunition they need to lock us up.

Additionally, if you end up in a legal use of force encounter where politics might even be tangentially involved then your social media history could be admissible in court. Even if your attorney is able to keep a particularly spicy post from being admitted as evidence, fighting that side battle could rack up thousands of dollars of legal fees on top of an already expensive defense.

# 2: Don't Engage in Panic Buying.

There is a tendency, generally among the far right but one becoming more prevalent on the left, of embracing consumerism as an antidote to deteriorating political conditions. The only solution to looming fascism in the USA is solidarity, and solidarity is built through trust and organizing. If we can't vote our way out of this mess, we're not going to swipe our credits cards out of it either.

The most recent and often cited example of this consumerist mentality was the hoarding of toilet paper at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. We've also seen this pop up in disconnected online spaces for leftists where folks new to the concept of owning a firearm are being told they're going to die in the coming American civil war if they don't buy a plate carrier, an AR-15, night vision equipment, and spend thousands of dollars on small unit tactics training multiple weekends a month. While this is almost a breath of fresh air compared to folks claiming a Mosin Nagant is “just as good” as a modern carbine for home defense, it's tremendously problematic for a multitude of reasons.

Let's be real for a minute: the overwhelming majority of us don't have the resources or the time for that and if we do, we're probably doing it on our own. The Army of One was a recruiting commercial and has become a right wing trope. There's nothing wrong with owning this sort of equipment but it's incredibly unlikely your friends and comrades will also own night vision or be able to spend thousands of dollars on CQB training on the weekend. You're also doing yourself a grave disservice if you're buying an AR-15 with a credit card while your car needs new tires or you need dental work done.

This section is not meant to discourage taking training classes – even advanced classes. Nor is it intended to discourage leftists from buying an AR-15 and body armor. Rather, the intent is to encourage the reader to be judicious with their time and money to match their training with their actual threat model.

#3 Recognize your actual threat model.

Your training and equipment should be in line with your actual threat model as a private citizen or individual. Learning how to clear rooms with a carbine or breach a structure should rank far below prioritizing learning skills that may actually benefit you in real life. You will be far more likely to use the skills you pick up in a de-escalation class during a conflict at work or on the street than pieing a corner. If you're carrying a spare magazine for your pistol on your person rather than a trauma kit with a tourniquet, you should also reexamine your every day carry (EDC) loadout.

Example 1: You're at a drag show and there are vocally anti-LBGTQ+ protesters outside. One of the protesters enters the venue and begins disrupting the event itself. The protester starts to get physically violent with the performers without displaying a weapon. A firearm and body armor aren't going to be particularly useful but de-escalation skills, OC spray, and empty handed skills will be.

Example 2: After attending a political event, a member of a local right wing group notices a bumper sticker on your car and follows you home. Pulling into your drive way, they box you in and get out of their car with a hammer in hand. Again, the AR-15 and body armor in your closet aren't going to be helpful to you in this situation but the Glock 19 carried concealed in an inside the waistband holster will be.

Example 3:  You attend a protest you saw advertised on an Instagram post alone. You are concealed carrying a handgun with two spare magazines in your side pocket at a protest in a state where concealed carrying is permitted in such an environment. An altercation breaks out 50 yards behind you in a thick crowd and gun shots ring out – a counter-protester has shot multiple people with a handgun and fled. You arrive to find one person shot in the abdomen on the ground and another with a gun shot wound in the leg who is bleeding profusely and already suffering from massive blood loss. You can't treat massive hemorrhaging with a spare magazine, and that limited space on your person would have been better served at holding both a handgun and a trauma kit.

#4 Secure safe storage before buying your first firearm.

If you've made the decision to purchase a firearm, you should have a storage solution figured out before you bring a gun into your home. This is important even if you're living alone and absolutely mandatory if there are other adults or children in the household. You can read our previous article on safe storage here.

#5 Your first firearm should probably be a handgun.

In the wake of the Bruen decision¹, virtually all 50 states have become “shall issue” rather than “may issue” in regards to concealed carry. While home invasions should be considered as part of the self-defense equation and there are documented instances of fascists planning the assassinations of leftists², the number one threat of violence an armed leftist will face is going to be outside the home. This could come in the form of a random crime of resource predation, a racial or gender identity motivated hate crime, or a politically motivated attack.

You will almost certainly not be carrying your rifle to the grocery store or coffee shop for an organizing meeting. While this may be your legal right in some states, is going out in public with an AR-15 slung across your back the best practical decision? What sort of reaction is this going to garner from marginalized groups (if you are a white cisgender male) or the general public?

Gun fights involving private individuals are quick and violent affairs, lasting mere seconds. Mass shootings, on average, last minutes. That's nowhere near enough time run to your car, grab a plate carrier from the trunk, load your AR-15, and return to engage the threat. This is also why we generally discourage the concept of a “truck gun” as the number one place firearms are stolen are from unsecured vehicles.

Virtually any modern polymer framed striker fired handgun in either a full size or compact configuration will be appropriate for personal and home defense and can be concealed on your person. Check with your local state laws to see if you need a concealed carry permit class. Even in a “constitutional carry” state, a concealed carry permit class may be helpful by providing reciprocity to other states when you travel.

While an AR-15 or even a 12-gauge shotgun are generally always going to be superior for home defense, a handgun is going to be more appropriate for a working class person on a limited income that also needs to be able to secure their firearm at home when not in use. Firearms are expensive and so are the ancillary accessories – weapon mounted lights, red dot optics, gun safes, etc. dramatically increase the cost of ownership.

#6 You should take a Stop the Bleed course.

Regardless of the outcome of November's US Presidential election, there will likely be politically motivated violence. This may come in the form of car attacks against protests, street fights, and shootings. Even if owning a gun is beyond your economic means or simply against your ethos, it would be a good idea to learn how to treat gun shot wounds in a country where there are more privately owned firearms than there are people.

Stop the Bleed is a non-profit whose goal is to educate the general public on how to treat massive bleeding caused by traumatic injury. Stop the Bleed courses are almost always free and last between one and two hours. The course material trains students to recognize the signs of life threatening bleed and in the use of wound packing and tourniquets. Stop the Bleed is absolutely mandatory for anyone that plans to own or be around firearms.

Multiple SRA chapters nationwide have certified Stop the Bleed instructors. You can also search for a course near you here: https://www.stopthebleed.org/training/

#7 Join an organization.

There is strength in numbers and doom posting on social media does little to meaningfully move the needle. You should ideally be joining an organization with other members in your area that you can meet offline and in-person. This can be a mutual aid organization, a political organization, an anti-fascist collective, an organization centered around firearms education such as the SRA, or even a study group. Touch grass, it's good for you.

If you're interested in joining the SRA, you can search for chapters near you here. If there isn't an active chapter nearby, there's a good chance other at-large members are nearby and willing to help found a stump chapter.

1“Gun-Carry Applications Flood Blue States Following Bruen Decision” by Erik Eva for The Reload https://thereload.com/gun-carry-applications-flood-blue-states-following-bruen-decision/

2“FBI Arrests Members of Neo-Nazi Cell Whose Plot to Murder Antifa Couple Was Foiled By a Bad Back” by Mack Lamoureux for Vice https://www.vice.com/en/article/akwvpj/fbi-arrests-members-of-neo-nazi-cell-whose-plot-to-murder-antifa-couple-was-foiled-by-a-bad-back)