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Why your character shouldn't have a gun


Fusco

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Many things that you will read, you will find as cliché and obvious as possible. But they are beyond facts that must be discussed.
Most newcomers who enter the server already arrive with the mentality of purchasing a weapon. "Oh, I'm in GTA, I want to be the CJ of the roleplay". If you think so, you are wrong. You are a trucker, who doesn't even stop at home, who doesn't even talk to his family because he's trying to earn a living during his travels. (Believe me, the trucker system is unrealistic, but let's not get into the details. A trucker does not get rich in the way that is possible inside the server.)

You are assaulted by a group of blacks or mobsters who steal cargo, or who simply need your truck / van to transport something illegal. To react? It is the last option. And last is still little. Having a gun pointed at the head is a shock far deeper than anyone can imagine. A simple ball of paint or a miserable airsoft ball hurts, can pierce the skin and leave it scarred for days. Imagine a real weapon that fires metallic projectiles at the speed of /light/. 

 

A trucker has a family, has duties as a citizen and as a family man. He does not think of acquiring a firearm for self-defense, overnight, just because he was assaulted, just because he had a gun or a blade pointed at his head, because he was threatened and humiliated. Not even. Having a gun is much more serious than you might think. An American citizen has the same weekly workload as a Brazilian, taking into account that: a truck driver just doesn't work when he wants to. He has a contract, he has bosses, he has people above him in the corporate hierarchy. It exists, nothing works as in the game. If you are a trucker, you need to work.

 

"I was robbed, I'm going to buy a weapon to defend myself, hehe ...". Pff.
Once again, you are wrong. Let us start with something undeniable: you will not be working armed. Not even the dumbest guy in the world would do that. You leave the house armed, get your truck and make your money. He is transporting his cargo and ends up crossing a police vehicle. The policeman suspects your common sense, conjectures that you are taking something illegal and decides to follow you. You know you're not carrying anything wrong, but you carry an illegal firearm with you. This is not only serious for you, but also for the company you work for, for the state of Los Santos, for your youngest son who is at school.

Bearing in mind that being armed is a contestable act, you leave your gun at home and go to work normally. His wife takes care of the house every day and decides to pack some things in her room. A gun is not that simple to hide like that. We are not talking about a marble, an ordinary trucker does not have a secret room hidden behind an automatic bookcase that opens with a little button attached to the wall, also dimmed. Not even a police officer is convinced that it is safe to leave a firearm stored at home, since he works with weapons provided by the police department, with numbers and documents.

 

We all have psychological, we have feelings. Even John Gotti had, that is undeniable. It takes much more than a motivation to have a weapon to acquire it. Bravery, ethical knowledge and trust are needed. It is not simple for you to find someone who sells a weapon, it is not easy for you to acquire a weapon from a criminal claiming to have been mugged. A smart criminal would usually hit you or simply send you out. If you have been mugged by a criminal, who makes his living in the same way as he, he will never sell you a firearm. He knows that you will try to take revenge, and this criminal who assaulted you may be someone close to him, he may be an enemy or even someone bigger than him. If he is found out, it will cost him his life. And not only his, yours will be the main one.

 

These are the most obvious reasons why a civilian should not have a gun at home. Much more than psychological is required to own a weapon. Remember that possession is different from possession. Possession is having, carrying is carrying. In this case, you would be breaking two state laws. It is too serious for a truck driver or any other individual. In addition to being arrested, spending years in prison, watching the sun rise square, you lose the family's trust, you start to be treated like a pauper. You have your dirty name, you lose your rights as a citizen, like voting, participating in government programs, enrolling in a college, making certain types of purchases, you lose privileges.

 

Think that your family refuses you and that you are now a notorious criminal, negatively marked by the penal code. This is also not common, it causes depression, it causes critical problems, both physical and mental. Having a weapon, being a civilian, is something much more reserved for those who develop something heavy in the character. Someone who had family someone who saw his wife or any other woman in his family fall victim to sodomy. It is a considerable blow to owning a weapon, but in extreme cases it does. No one loses their parents or watches someone being raped so easily or frequently.

 

Not to mention that, a good citizen does not learn overnight to use a gun, to aim, and to shoot. A criminal doesn't like whoever serves the state. A criminal is not so kind as to sell a weapon to a stranger. This is off-axis, too much. No truck driver, taxi driver, whatever, gets enough affinity and confidence with a criminal that he'll hand you a firearm for a symbolic and salty amount of money. This requires a much more in-depth roleplay than anyone thinks. The criminal stereotyped person is usually a drug user, in most cases, and has psychological problems. He thinks he is being chased, that he is being investigated, he suffers frequent paranoias and it is not just any truck driver that will generate the confidence necessary for this to happen. In addition to the fact that it is not unusual for an American individual to have an illegal weapon, he will not be any offender who will grant him that trust.

 

Believe me, it is much more complicated than you think. If you intend to have a gun, being a trucker, try to develop to the fullest, although most players find this out of place. All of this has already been well explained in the topic of GL, for those who have not read it, it is wasting time. "Why your character should NOT kill someone". This was just a complement to that. You always have to remember: this is RP and not RPG. You are not your character, you do not do what you want to do. There is a need for considerable depth in this.

Without further ado, I end here, I know that many people generally don't like texts that are too long and / or complex. Hope this helps.

Edited by Fusco
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Right so then just go and train at your local gun range and then acquire a PF and possibly a CCW in the future to defend yourself? No one goes around buying illegal firearms to defend themselves, unless they're criminals of course. If you seriously think that "my life is in danger, I better acquire a gun to defend myself" isn't enough motivation and good reasoning for someone to get a gun then idk lmfao

 

It's like...Dude, if I know that statistically my chance of being robbed while on the job is high then you better BELIEVE I'll be getting a gun especially in a country where it's easily obtainable and allowed (legally). And why's keeping a gun in your house dangerous??? People want to defend their property? You keep mentioning kids and family a lot yet you forget that there's no bigger motivation for someone to get a gun than getting one to defend their home from intruders. Don't see how keeping guns in your house isn't safe lol, think the opposite makes more sense

You only mention illegally obtaining a gun, what about legally? Is that unsafe too?

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I don't think this is very accurate.

 

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Imagine a real weapon that fires metallic projectiles at the speed of /light/. 

Bullets travel nowhere near the speed of light.

 

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A trucker has a family, has duties as a citizen and as a family man. He does not think of acquiring a firearm for self-defense, overnight, just because he was assaulted, just because he had a gun or a blade pointed at his head, because he was threatened and humiliated. Not even. Having a gun is much more serious than you might think.

That just seems a little disconnected from reality to me. My good friends used to own Pita Heaven in Chicago. After the wife got robbed carrying ~5-10k in cash right outside the restaurant, she immediately enrolled into a gun safety course and applied for FOID and conceal carry license.

According to THIS about 1/10 residents of Illinois own a firearms license (FOID). Why does a trucker that just got robbed acquiring a firearm seem unreasonable to you? Also what do you mean "having a firearm is more serious than you think"? Do you own one irl? It's literally a hobby for a huge amount of people.

 

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An American citizen has the same weekly workload as a Brazilian, taking into account that: a truck driver just doesn't work when he wants to. He has a contract, he has bosses, he has people above him in the corporate hierarchy. It exists, nothing works as in the game. If you are a trucker, you need to work.

Irrelevant. Also there's this huge misconception that truckers are somehow lower class people when in reality they make bank almost anywhere in the world.

 

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Not to mention that, a good citizen does not learn overnight to use a gun, to aim, and to shoot. A criminal doesn't like whoever serves the state. A criminal is not so kind as to sell a weapon to a stranger. This is off-axis, too much. No truck driver, taxi driver, whatever, gets enough affinity and confidence with a criminal that he'll hand you a firearm for a symbolic and salty amount of money. This requires a much more in-depth roleplay than anyone thinks. The criminal stereotyped person is usually a drug user, in most cases, and has psychological problems. He thinks he is being chased, that he is being investigated, he suffers frequent paranoias and it is not just any truck driver that will generate the confidence necessary for this to happen. In addition to the fact that it is not unusual for an American individual to have an illegal weapon, he will not be any offender who will grant him that trust.

I swear most people on GTA:W think civilians are mentally retarded.

You can learn how to shoot a gun on stationary targets in an hour. You can learn how to dismantle a gun and put it back together in ~2 hours easily. You can learn tactical shooting in a week (not SWAT level, obviously, but hitting targets while moving is really NOT that difficult, even my 65 year old manager at work does tactical shooting courses).

 

This just seems very disconnected from reality man... I don't think this came from actual first hand experience around firearms, firearm licensing and shooting.

Edited by TritonXVII
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I totally understand guys. But IRL works totally different, it's impossible that someone starts shooting at you for no reason (only if there is a terrorist attack or something) otherwise nobody will shoot or do something stupid to you because if they do, they know they're gonna be in real trouble. What I mean there is that, in GTA:W sometimes there's people trolling in the game, I've seen people getting shot for poor reasons etc. This is totally unrealistic, I'm sure you guys have seen something like that. 

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I disagree with this guide. I enrolled into this server and had zero intention of ever having my character carry a gun, however as I continued roleplaying a law-abiding citizen in GTA:W's Los Santos, the harder it became to justify that my character would not legally carry a gun.

 

If this was real life Los Angeles, yes, it'd be really unrealistic for all civilians to be concealed carrying. Even if this was a city in Texas you wouldn't see as much carrying. But the problem is, Los Santos has a really unrealistic rate of crime and violence. Couple that with melee sync and that the meta in this game is just to aim a gun at someone and automatically "win" the RP, there's just too many reasons to carry a gun both IC and OOC.

 

I feel  a lot safer both as a player and as a character carrying a gun. I never need to use it, but knowing that I have the option is huge. Of course, on a heavy RP server, if someone walks up and does the meta of "/me aims gun, RP fear!" then a gun won't save me, but there have been two incidences where my character was able to save her life or someone else's with a gun in this last year of RP. One of those incidences was voided because the character who got shot had his buddy come over and start VDMing the police on scene. Either way, if my character was unarmed she would have had to stand by and watch her friend be choked to death by an angry guy who crashed into her with his shit non-RP driving, and in the other RP she would have had a guy smash her head in with a baseball bat because she caught him robbing her friend's unconscious body. 

 

It's an IC issue. Los Santos is a very dangerous city. You can make your character and RP pretending it's a regular American city for a month or two, but after a while your character is either blind or stupid if they ignore how dangerous the city actually is ICly. My character doesn't go a single day without hearing one of her friends got robbed or attacked. It's practically powergaming if your character doesn't decide to legally carry a gun to protect themselves.

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I'm curious if you live in the US? This seems very... dramatic. Owning a gun is not at all a big deal here. Most of my family owns various firearms, and bringing a pistol or two when we go out camping or something like that is not unusual. Aiming and shooting a gun is also not exactly rocket science. I've shot a few different types of guns, and was literally just shown how to load and use them in a few minutes before doing so. Regardless of whether or not it's a good idea, the fact is that irl guns are easy to get, and easy to use. 

 

Edit: I forgot to respond to the idea of needing secret spy-movie type places to store them. No, you just... keep them in a safe, like a normal person. And for taking it out and about, it's not unusual at all here for someone to have a gun in their glove box, or purse, or whatever. Concealed carrying does require a license, but you can walk around with a gun visibly holstered on your hip if you don't have it.

Edited by Ellix
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2 hours ago, Ink said:

It's an IC issue. Los Santos is a very dangerous city. You can make your character and RP pretending it's a regular American city for a month or two, but after a while your character is either blind or stupid if they ignore how dangerous the city actually is ICly. My character doesn't go a single day without hearing one of her friends got robbed or attacked. It's practically powergaming if your character doesn't decide to legally carry a gun to protect themselves.

This, having been on the legal side & heavily illegal side of things. I think anyone should be able to obtain a gun. 

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7 hours ago, Ink said:

It's an IC issue. Los Santos is a very dangerous city. You can make your character and RP pretending it's a regular American city for a month or two, but after a while your character is either blind or stupid if they ignore how dangerous the city actually is ICly.

Well put.

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