lovmuffin
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
One thing that emerges clearly from the various discussions of gun laws and gun violence here is that there are very different attitudes towards guns in the US than in comparable countries.
Guns occupy a position in both US popular culture and official history that is unique to the US. Guns were allegedly the key to 'winning the West', they enjoy brandnames such as 'The Peacemaker' and it's rare to see a US crime or political drama that fails to grant an important role to guns and the people who use them, either for good or bad. To the bafflement of foreigners, guns are regarded by many as tools that enhance freedom rather than tools that take lives, even though they are used to take many more lives in the US than other comparable countries.
The tone of many of the pro-gun posters here suggests that guns occupy a more important role in their lives than just about anything else, up to and including sex. The empassioned intransigence (that reaches belligerence on occasion) of their posts suggests that one is dealing with something that is important in their self image, their identities. To describe some people's attitudes towards their precious guns as obsessive is an understatement.
While one cannot prove a simple causal connection between levels of gun availability ownership, gun laws and gun violence, one can state that guns are used to injure and kill people in the US at a far higher rate than other comparable countries. It seems to me that at least part of the explanation for this disparity can be found in the centrality of guns in US culture. Those who passionately defend their Second Amendment rights are as complicit in this regard as any gunslinger - both groups place a grossly over inflated value on guns in their lives and their participation in US society/culture.
If this perspective has merit, then it follows that a revision of the role of guns in US culture and society if significant progress is to be made towards reducing the levels of gun violence. The halving of the numbers of active hunters in recent years indicates that this revision is already happening regardless of whether it is acknowledged as such or not. The pro-gun lobby has a critical role in revising the role of guns in US life for the betterment of all.
If the pro-gun lobby are as serious about reducing the levels of gun violence as they insist they are, then they must accept this responsibility, as indeed must all sectors of US life
The only thing my tone and beligerance suggests is my opposition to gun control. As a young hunter growing up, I was allowed by age 14 to be out on my own or with friends in the field with my Shotgun that I had access to at anytime. When old enough to drive, durring fall bird season we took our shotguns to school (left concealed in the vehicle) so we could get to our hunting areas quickly and would have extra time before it got dark. During this time growing up I didnt give gun politics a second thought. Nor did I give any status or anything sexual to shooting, hunting or owning a shotgun. It was all perfectly normal.
Fast forward to sometime after 1981 when Reagan and Jim Brady were shot and calls were coming in from political types for handgun control, I started paying attention. Shortly thereafter in 1989 some idiot (who had a record of felony gun violations and was on parole for said violations) shot up a school yard and killed 5 kids with a Chinese AK type semi auto converted to full auto. Then come the calls for bans on so called "assault weapons / rifles" whatever. The language of proposed legislation in effect would have banned semi automatics (an entire fucking class of firearms). At that point I got more involved, joined the NRA and became more beligerant.
So your perspective on gun culture in the US, and especially where I'm concerned, starts out with some truth but goes off on a tangent of bullshit. See bolded parts. When the constitution was written, the founders believed the Second Amendment would guarantee the rest of our rights. Considering the corruption in politics and government, the Second Amendment is as legitament a concept in modern times as it was back in the day.
Now back to your regularly scheduled bullshit. I'm off to fondle my .45
< Message edited by lovmuffin -- 10/10/2015 11:54:13 AM >
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"Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world." Unknown
"Long hair, short hair—what's the difference once the head's blowed off." - Farmer Yassir
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RE: Oregon Shooter had fifteen firearms - 
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