Yes, Karl Marx wrote:

"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary."

"To be able forcefully and threateningly to oppose this party [bourgeois], the workers must be armed and organized."

I don't think being anti-gun makes one not an actual leftist.

Sure, Marx wrote that stuff in Resplendent606's comment, but:

• I think it's worth bearing in mind that when Marx wrote that, guns were still using powder and percussion caps.
• Not everything Marx said was gospel.

Anyone not in favour of recreational nukes is in agreement that there should be a limit on the amount of lethal force a person should be allowed to own, and I think reasonable people can disagree on whether or not guns are within that limit.

Mussolini didn’t end up hanging upside down in an Italian town square because of protests.

While you're right that the people who killed Mussolini were armed dissidents, it's worth remembering that he was allowed to be taken after being deposed after a vote of no confidence from the fascist government of Italy after they got their shit kicked in a few times militarily, and it was the King who removed and presumably arrested him before the citizens did their thing.

And also, the Allies were plowing a path of destruction towards Italy.

Moral of the story: no great story is as simple as we need it to be. There is still politics, there are still decisions by the ruling class that allow the next steps to happen and that ruling class can have their will bent. We still need to be involved in the political system, armed mobs cause as much harm as good even in the best of circumstances, so we want to avoid that if possible, but we need to also have that force behind us or the politics won't work.

To rephrase this line

Protests only work if the person you're protesting gives a shit what you think.

Protests only work when you directly affect their vested interests. They don't care about you or what you think. Period. Yet, they do care about something.

Organize. Find out what those vested interests are. Hold them hostage. Create the credible threat that if they do not start representing our interests, as is their assumed role of the position they have been appointed to, then we will royally fuck it up and hit them where it hurts.

Then, it doesn't matter if they care what we think, we have established our authority and made it known that it will be enforced with immediate consequences. If they want their authority as a government official then they will respect our authority as their constituency or else.

Most of all, be prepared for them to retaliate and defend their interests. To deter us and threaten us to stand down. These are the times in history where we can't back down. We cannot give in to them just to save our own skin when it comes at the cost of, if allowed to continue, the skins of millions of others under the boot of their oppression.

We fight and stand our ground knowing that we may possibly die, but also possibly survive and save millions of lives, or we do nothing, let millions fall to their atrocities, until they finally turn their sights on us and we die with regret that we didn't even attempt to stop them.

They can't do this without us so, if they want to go this route, we need to be ready to sink the whole goddamn ship so they don't get their cake and eat it too. Mutually assured destruction is not just a nuclear deterrent. The best part is, us workers can rebuild. We built this all to begin with. The owning class assholes, if they get rid of us, will live out their final moments in a burned out husk surrounded by resources with no ability to use them. They will be Kings of nothing, to die of thirst surrounded by water with nothing but their imaginary wealth to keep them company.

WRONG.

It’s past time to get your guns. We (I vote Democrat and live in a blue state) have banned most guns.

Great fucking job.

Oh and btw most (as in >50%) gun deaths in the USA are from suicide where how the gun functions or how many bullets it holds at one time are irrelevant. Pity that no political party in America gives a shit about all those miserable souls who want to die. Easier to ban guns and disarm ourselves in the face of fascists who’ve taken over our nation.

Like I said… great fucking job. Quick, someone bitch about Palestine, that’ll surely help.

Turns out they hate women more than they love guns.

Nobody is taking the guns from Americans, because nobody has the balls or the numbers of enforcers to do it.

For reference, the number of Americans who came out to the No Kings Day protests was larger than the sum total of all enlisted US Military and police officers. Next look at the number of Americans who own guns, it's much larger than all of the above.

Mag dumping each other for fun and profit.

I'm not American, but I consider myself left wing, and I am pro gun but I am also pro gun control. I don't think outright banning them is a solution but I also don't think letting them out in the world unchecked is a good idea either.

Definitely just the USA. I mentioned earlier that I really respect NZ deciding to disarm after their last public shooting. That's something that could really happen when corruption is that low and people are educated and healthy.

It's definitely not just an American thing.

"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary." -Karl Marx

America does have a "unique" culture around guns, but that's not all that prevalent on the left. What's driving interest in guns is the sad fact that we might need to use them.

Being pro gun, doesn't have to mean you're against sensible gun laws though

I don't know. I don't think we really are good at deciding who should and shouldn't have a right. there seems to be something fundamentally broken in that

In a civilised society, you don't fear every random passerby will try to kill you, so it is irrelevant what they are carrying.

Why though? It's not like people are getting kidnapped off the street oh wait

Same here.

To me it's a useless item.

I saw a competition where competitors would stand on a blue square and quickly shoot all the blue targets that popped up, then move to a red square and shoot the red ones. It was timed and looked like a ton of fun. I thought, this would be the only reason I would buy one. But you know, I have a lot of hobbies. That looked real expensive. I would have to hang around gun ranges and gun people. There would be a dangerous weapon in the house. We don't have kids but visitors do. My wife doesn't want it. In the end I just didn't want it.

I have a lot of friends who are Democrats and a lot of them own guns. I laugh every time Republicans say Dems want to take their guns. I'm like, no, they just want some simple safety rules and the strange thing is 80% of all gun owners used to to. I don't know if that's still true but the number came from the NRA a decade or two ago. Yeah, THE NRA. They even used to be in favor of an automatic weapons ban.

I don't think more guns is the answer, but I can kind of see the logic for a lefty to want to defend himself...or his country.

Rising up against the government is a LARPy roleplay fantasy by people who don't have community or culture.

However, making your insane, fascist government think twice before knocking down random doors in random neighborhoods lest they face a hail of gunfire, that is almost a necessity right now.

This country has too much wealth and resources that a lot of people would love to control, Trump is just the first to succeed at getting into the vault, but there have been many, many others who would have taken the US by force from within given the means.

Yes, better social policies and better international relations would have done a better job mitigating that, but we didn't get that, so here we are. Huddled behind our weapons and hoping they scare the monsters enough that they leave us alone.