I hate people who treat them like some toys and fantasize about them. That makes me think they are in some sort of death cult. That they found socially acceptable way to love violence.
I would still get one for safety but it is a tool made for specifically one thing. To pierce the skin and rip through the inner organs of a person.
They can serve a good purpose but they are fundamentally grim tools of pain and suffering. They shouldn’t be celebrated and glorified in their own right, that is sick. They can be used to preserve something precious but at a price to pay.
They are helpful as someone who sometimes needs to cull animals,
Apart from that I see them more as a symbol of power. I would never go to a protest with a loaded gun, but carrying a gun while protesting facism shows we are serious, we have power.
I agree it’s about power, and people get hopped up on feeling that power.
However, please stay the fuck away from any protests. You’re likely to get other people killed brandishing guns whether they are loaded or not.
It’s more about a tit for tat, in my area we have right wingers open carrying around leftist protests. So our anarchist groups open carry (unloaded) guns as a sort of “you’re not going to intimidate us” response.