re: #393 Renaissance_Man

That’s because the problem is not just the owning of guns. It is the idea of owning guns for the purpose of fighting with them. Americans keep guns for the purpose, implicit or explicit, of having to use them on other people - to ‘defend themselves’, ‘defend their property’, ‘stop criminals’, and so forth. It is a purpose ingrained into their Culture. They own and keep guns with the expectation that they will use them to fight with in civilian life - to settle disputes, to kill bad guys, to ‘save lives’.

This is why I find it hilarious (in a really depressing way) that most of the people I see claiming that they need guns to ‘protect themselves from a tyrannical government’ are the same people bitching about the NFL players not showing that government the proper amount of respect.

I actually asked a couple of them that very question yesterday, and they simply bailed from the conversation.

I laugh my rueful laugh.