DON’T LET A DUMMY TAKE YOUR LIFE: A former gangbanger talks guns & gangs

Disclaimer: I am a former gangmember. I have no convictions, and am not a prohibited person. All my firearms are legally owned. This is just an expose.on how some sets work, but not all are alike.

Now, lets get straight into it. Amongst the lower ranks of sets, the footsoldiers/YGs/other youngins; there are 3 ways to acquire guns.

1) from other gangmembers. This is fairly straightforward. Sometimes they’ll sell ’em, other times they’ll trade ’em, and sometimes they’ll loan ’em out.

2) from pawn shops. Why pawn shops? They tend to be more discreet and less likely to kick you out if they think you bang. So send a young kid with a clean record to buy a new gun or two. Or get one of the girls to do it.

3) steal ’em. This is either done when you know a house has unsecured guns, or if you stumble upon them during a knock-over. Usually stolen from extended family if you know they’re there.

Hint:  If you have unsavory black sheep in your family, don’t let them into your home for the holidays or special occasions.  Period.  Make sure your spouse is onboard with that too.  And your kids.

But, there’s always exceptions. For some of the bigger sets (and I mean huge sets, like the Stone Bloods), they work out deals with whoever they need to so that they can source firearms from other places, but the one Stone I know won’t share how. Sorry, will hopefully edit if I can get it out of him.

Now I’m sure most of you have seen the idiot with snapcaps saying they’re paralyzer bullets. Yeah, people like him exist, and they’re too common. But a lot of sets will have an ”armorer” who’s responsible for telling the youngins what guns to buy, buying ammo, and keeping shit working. That was my job. In a set of ~100 people, I was responsible for about ~60 guns. Not fun.

Anyway, the smarter ones of us would try to consolidate calibers. Didn’t always work, but it brings us to the next point:

What the **** is with the Hi-Points?

Well, we had two categories: cheap and reliable. Huge shocker, ain’t it. Well, say what you will, but Hi-Points are fairly reliable.

Surrrreeeee they are.  Read “A malfunction every 28 rounds“.

And when you’re dealing with dumb people, they’re easy to teach how they work. Same with Kel Tecs, Rugers, and Kahrs. So we’d try to equip the YGs, Jack boys, and runners with them. But there’s a divide in gangmembers. One side likes small and concealable. One side likes big, ”powerful”, intimidating guns.

That’s why you see a weird mix of Charter Arms Bulldogs, Hi-Points, and Kel Tecs. So where we might want to just have 9 mils, we have to source an 8” .44 for one guy, a pocket .380 for another, and a full-size .45 for another. It sucks. Plus, any guns that get stolen get added to the mix. The amount.of old .22s and hunting rifles we got was astonishing. But we made do.

Old .22s were easily the most common gun I saw at the big-city gun buybacks I’ve been to.  It would stand to reason that the gangs and criminal class see a lot of them too.  It’s a darn shame .22 ammo is so hard to find!  (Sarcasm off)

And that leads to another problem. We needed rifles for our jack boys. They were the ones kicking in doors and riding on people. They wanted the coolest looking rifles possible. So that meant Mak-90s and M4-geries, and the occasional shotgun. Even more complex and irritating.

And to completely counteract the ”paralyzer” bullet guy, some sets will have former combat soldiers and Marines. These guys will do a couple tours, come back, and share their knowledge. Room clearing, fire and maneuver, proper maintenance, and reloading under stress. They help make gangs even more dangerous.

Yup.  Which means if you don’t have training, these “dumb people” gang members – who have had rudimentary training – might win a deadly confrontation with you as luck has a pretty short effective range.

I know somebody asked about street prices, so here’s my rough summary: ~15% below.market value for friends to ~20% above it for guys you know have no other option.

I’m rambling, so here’s me trying to wrap it up: gangmembers are dumb, but sometimes they have a good support and supply team. Stolen guns get used or sold. Pawn shops are great. Ask questions if you have ’em. Sorry for the rambling, will keep editing for cohesiveness.

He said it again:  Gang members are dumb.  Don’t let a dummy take your life and leave your family grieving.  Learn good skills.

You can follow the thread at Reddit for additional comments from this guy.  If you find any gems, cut and paste them into comments, please.

Thanks.