JimC wrote:I detect 3 strands in the American love affair with guns:
One strand is simply the enjoyment of guns themselves; firing them, hunting with them, learning about them, even cleaning them. I share this; when I was a young bloke, I owned a few rifles, and loved hunting rabbits on the farm. I can still remember they smell of gun oil myself... So, I get this strand, and at least a reasonable number of folk around the world would too...
One might note that shooting is included in several Olympic sports. One might also note that the British pistol teams aren't even allowed to possess their Olympic target pistols in the UK, and they have to go out of the country to practice.
The second is the whole self-defence thing; the whole "criminals better walk softly around me, coz I'm a righteous citizen packing serious heat". This strand is totally surreal to me, although I understand that, in a society with a vast number of hand-guns in circulation, the need for one of your own becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy... I suspect that "alea jacta" applies here...
Why is this so "surreal" to you? Even in the UK, prior to 1924, people commonly carried handguns (concealed) for protection against criminals. Is the notion of self-defense so alien to you that you simply cannot comprehend either the threat or the simple fact that when and if one is attacked by a violent criminal that the police are virtually never going to be there to protect you? The handgun is the most effective deterrent/defensive weapon ever invented. Period. In the vast majority of cases its mere presence in the hands of a potential victim scares off the criminal, which means that it's most effective merely by its existence. And it has wide utility because of the varying degrees of force that it provides for different dangerous situations, from brandishing it to scare of a criminal to shooting a vicious dog to shooting a deranged mass killer.
Your attitude demonstrates a serious and IMHO pathological paranoid fear of your fellow law-abiding citizens.
The third strand is the combined historical/libertarian thing. Citizen colonists fought off colonial oppression using their own weapons, and that legacy has become a truly sacred message to many. Socialism, the new world order and those pesky black helicopters can only be held at bay by that magic amulet, the gun, with the NRA as high priests...
Indeed, and precisely correct. Guns are not a "magic amulet," they are a stern and effective deterrent to government-sponsored tyranny, which is why we remain a free people. The NRA (of which I'm an Endowment Life Member) is nothing more than the collective voice of about five million people in the US who are determined not to allow anyone to disparage or infringe upon our fundamental natural right to arm ourselves for self-defense and defense against tyranny. It's not some alien organism, it's the voice of the people, and I am very glad that our elected leaders are staunch in their defense, and promotion of gun rights for the law-abiding. Thanks to the NRA, I can now carry concealed lawfully in 40 states, whereas 15 years ago I couldn't do so (as an average citizen) even in my own community.
Oh well, one out of three is better than nothing, I suppose...
Just because you are incapable of understanding the meanings and reasons for protecting the right to keep and bear arms (which by the way came from Great Britain as a concept) doesn't mean those meanings and reasons are invalid, it only points to your own ignorance and/or political persuasion.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
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