What would it take for you to take up arms?

[Bored Of Education]

Erdogan urged people to take to the streets to oppose the coup last night. I am not sure how violently or armed he wanted them to protest but it did make me wonder what would force me to take up arms and defend, well, what?

My initial thought is, of course, when my family are at risk but what form does that take? From experience, this is the only time I would physically defend myself. Would I wait until armed forced were literally at my door? There is, of course, the Voltaire via Hall maxim about "defend[ing] to the death" freedom of speech but I am not sure I agree with that. I have been to enough places where the "freedom of speech won't feed my children" observation rings true. There is no government presently that I would defend physically but our notion of democracy? It's fallible but I accept it so would I defend it if it was genuinely threatened? I am not sure. I certainly would never answer to conscription.

Anyone got any less woolly parameters?

[ad hoc]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

As a Scottish woman I know who is married to a Turk (and who lives in Turkey) observed on facebook today, some of the people who went out on to the streets last night decided to take their young children with them, which, is, somehow, baffling.

I think there are 2 possible answers. 1 is in the situation where you perceived a grave injustice was being done and which was placing your community (define as you wish) under threat of physical harm.

If the Romanian govt for example, decided to use force against the peacefully troublesome Hungarian minority among whom I live, I would resist in some way (as "taking up arms" is probably not that useful in that (a) I have no idea of where to get hold of some arms; and (b) I wouldn;t know how to use them if I did, I would probably resist in a less violent way.)

Or (2) if I felt that all possible hope of social justice had been exhausted (I am amazed, for example, that more Palestinians do not take up arms. It shows an incredible stoicism to my mind)

[evilC]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

Short answer: Not much.

The bigger problem for me would be where to find those arms and how to get clear shots at the targets.

[Reed John]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

Finding guns around here wouldn't be hard.

Guns are not a good way to protect my family or self. Maybe a shotgun, especially if the zombie apocalypse comes. But I'd probably stick with just a baseball bat. Otherwise, I'd just want a bunker.

I often feel like we really need a revolution, but I have no confidence that it would actually work out for the better. I think we'd have reeducation camps and show trials, etc, followed by a nasty counter revolution that would make Trumpocracy look civil and liberal by comparison.

[Bored Of Education]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

They aren't a good way to protect anyone's family or self but that is the point of the thread. What is the last resort?

I mean, obviously, I am talking about arms of necessity rather than choice. It could be breadknives, rakes or torches.

[Reed John]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

Bordeaux Education wrote: They aren't a good way to protect anyone's family or self but that is the point of the thread. What is the last resort?

I mean, obviously, I am talking about arms of necessity rather than choice. It could be breadknives, rakes or torches.

The best way to protect a family would probably be some kind of bunker or fort. Maybe build a trebuchet and have some archers. Big cauldrons of oil and rocks to drop.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

I write letters to the Guardian all the time.

[DCI Harry Batt]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

There are two bits to "taking up arms" - there's putting oneself in harm's way, and there's damaging and destroying other people. I think the first is easier than the second.

[Errorist Sympathiser]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

Two things, I suppose:

1) a threat to my family & friends which will endanger their life/make life not worth living

2) having nothing left to lose

[WOM]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

I was down in my parents basement the other day and turned up a shotgun that i thought dad had turned in to the cops with all his others ones, years ago.

So I guess the answer would be 'looking for a ladies' pitching wedge beneath the stairs'.

[NickSTFU]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

Good pay and decent grub.

But, to be serious for a bit, outside of my family, it would depend on the intended outcome.

[Patrick Thistle]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

I guess none of us really know what we would do in an extreme situation. And more and more this is an age of extremism. So some of us may find out the answer to this question.

[Patrick Thistle]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

My Grandad told a story of going to the cinema and watching the newsreel of the Blitzkrieg in Poland. He went into the town centre and enlisted that day and then went home, kissed his mum goodbye (His dad was at work; he didn't see him again for months) and went to catch a train with his enlistment papers in his pocket.

He told me he saw the images of women and children refugees and decided he couldn't let that happen to his mother and little sister. And so began six years in the Royal Artillery.

So there you go. It could be a newsreel.

[Bored Of Education]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

WOM wrote: I was down in my parents basement the other day and turned up a shotgun that i thought dad had turned in to the cops with all his others ones, years ago.

So I guess the answer would be 'looking for a ladies' pitching wedge beneath the stairs'.

What if some said to you that you pitched like a girl?

[San Bernardhinault]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

I think the answer for me is: almost nothing could get me to take up arms.

As one of nature's cowards, and as somebody who has a slight visceral reaction to blood, I'd need incredible motivation. Given that I'm also pretty lazy, fairly equivocal, and inclined to think the best of everyone and therefore assume that bad situations will get resolved, I'm not sure there's anything that would get me over the barrier.

If anything, it would be at the point where I genuinely have nothing left to lose, and you'd probably have to have a genocide happening.

I'd like to claim that I'd take up arms to fight injustice, but it would be a lie.

[axolotl]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

a bleeder not a fighter eh?

[G-Man]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

As a young man, the cause of freedom and justice might have compelled me to be supportive of an armed response, albeit as a last resort.

Now I probably wouldn't take up arms. I'd presume that hose on the other side would be better at using them and have fewer scruples to do so than I would.

[Guy Profumo]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

Bordeaux Education wrote:
Anyone got any less woolly parameters?

Being faced with a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them?

[Felicity, I guess so]

What would it take for you to take up arms?

I'm a definite coward, but believer in the idea that you can avoid violence by being much bigger in number than the enemy, so I've turned out on a range of anti-fascist protests where that was the theory...but it has got to the point where we've had to stand our ground under attack, and picked up wood, stones etc to defend myself.

So if I were to extrapolate from that (and knew one end of a gun from another!) I suppose I could imagine taking up arms in that kind of situation.