Gun Culture
I tend to fit in with bro culture, like the brogrammers of Hacker News, in part because I come from Gun Culture.
Daddy grew up on a farm where shot guns are tools needed to do your job that involves things like shooting fixes preying upon your hen house. He made good money in his teens hunting foxes for the bounty.
You need to lay still for hours waiting for the fox to show up. If it hears you, you will never see it.
If you kill it the first night, it's good money. If it takes a week, it's not. He made good money.
And then he joined the military because it was World War II. He briefly went home for like six months after the war ended, then rejoined the army because when they weren't shooting at you, it was an easier life than farming. He got to sleep in an hour and the work usually didn't involve backbreaking labor.
He retired when I was three. I don't remember him being a soldier. But I heard a lot of stories growing up.
His two shotguns were hung on wooden hooks on the wall above his bed. No locked gun case and for safety reasons they weren't loaded, though they each had two shells laying in the groove of the barrel which likely made it more obvious he was prepared to shoot you.
Gun cases are for wealthy hobbiests. My father related to guns as tools you might need on short notice in an emergency situation.
My father was pragmatic and diplomatic. I'm fairly confident his remark to me that if someone broke in, he's loading it in the dark, shooting first and then turning on the lights was code for "Sneaking a boyfriend in through your bedroom window might not be goid for his health."
As a child, I was taught how to shoot both a gun and bow and we were drilled with gun safety rules like:
1. "Never take a loaded gun in the house. Empty the chamber before you head back in after target practice, even if it's just your brother's bb gun."
2. "Never point a gun at anyone you aren't intending to shoot."
3. "Never threaten anyone with a gun as a bluff or intimidation tactic. If you aren't fully prepared to kill them both psychologically and practically, doing so is a good way to arm someone and escalate the situation."
I've seen discussions online about how to keep yourself safe as a homeless person and they sometimes talk about what weapons to carry or carrying mace or similar. I've never done that.
Once while homeless, I left by myself ahead of my sons as I typically did to meet them at a park. Some butthead was using the walking trail for shooting tin cans as target practice, putting my head in his sights as I came up the hill.
As I walked past him, this idiot cradled the gun in his arms which resulted in it being inadvertently aimed at me. As I walked past, I said "Don't point that at me." he said something rude, I cussed at him and kept walking.
He gathered up his shit and ran to his vehicle and raced to the end of the dead end road to casually stand blocking the entrance to the park to try to provoke a woman old enough to be his mother into starting a fight with him. I walked through the less obvious second gate he clearly had no idea was there.
He was standing between two wood poles with a gap between them that served as 24/7 pedestrian access on the right side of a utility road. There was a locked gate for vehicle access for authorized personnel.
On the left side there was what at first glance appeared to be fencing but in fact contained a pedestrian gate. His vehicle was parked in front of it but not close enough to block my access, so I'm quite certain he had no idea that was a second pedestrian gate.
He began clearing his throat when I went through it because Mr. Dickless Wonder desperately wanted to have a confrontation with me and be able to blame me though there were no witnesses to see any of this nonsense. I kept walking. He kept desperately clearing his throat in a bizarre bid for attention.
When my sons showed up to have breakfast with me in the park, I told them this story. They laughed so hard. I said "You're going to get your mother killed." They laughed again.
To be clear, my sons don't laugh much. There isn't a lot that tickles their funny bone.
People playing with guns but not inculcated with gun culture are frequently spineless morons pretending they are men who feel powerful because they are holding a gun and they are idiots who see it as power to kill you and they never were taught that runs both ways and a stupid fucktard like you may die when someone genuinely dangerous turns your gun on you after you were an asshole to the wrong person, someone actually prepared to shoot to kill.