The American love of guns?

[Eddi]

Why?

I don't get it

 

[Augustus]

History and myth and culture and hobbies.

 

[Stevicus]

Why?

I don't get it

I grew up with TV shows like this.

The Rifleman would always get the bad guys, who also typically had guns of their own. So, the underlying theme of all of these shows is that, there are bad guys with guns, so good guys have to have guns and be better at using them than the bad guys.

So, in the end, the good guy wins, and that's what makes America great.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I grew up with TV shows like this.

The Rifleman would always get the bad guys, who also typically had guns of their own. So, the underlying theme of all of these shows is that, there are bad guys with guns, so good guys have to have guns and be better at using them than the bad guys.

So, in the end, the good guy wins, and that's what makes America great.

I loved those shows. Guns are what shaped the wilderness and frontiers, fought for our freedoms....

There's a positive aspect as much as negative.

The legendary musket of Daniel Boone for example.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I'm not a violent person, but cleaning, loading, and shooting guns is intensely satisfying. I don't shoot firearms often, but I do bring out my crossbows regularly which provide the same satisfaction.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I'm not a violent person, but cleaning, loading, and shooting guns is intensely satisfying. I don't shoot firearms often, but I do bring out my crossbows regularly which provide the same satisfaction.

I had bows myself in the past. Great satisfaction shooting them.

I had a real AR-15 when I was out off the military but I got rid of it before the People's Republic of New York banned them. I'm happy with shotguns and long rifle enough but bows and crossbows do have that aspect of nostalgia that can't be shaken when using them. Fortunately I'm not too far away from an archery range.

 

[Spice]

I grew up with TV shows like this.

The Rifleman would always get the bad guys, who also typically had guns of their own. So, the underlying theme of all of these shows is that, there are bad guys with guns, so good guys have to have guns and be better at using them than the bad guys.

So, in the end, the good guy wins, and that's what makes America great.

And I was always told my dad could shoot from the hip just like Lucas McCain when they went hunting. They said a rabbit didn't stand a chance hopping across field rows. There was pride in being able to handle a gun properly, whether it was to protect the children from cotton mouths, bring home meat for the family table, or put down an injured/sick animal.
I was shooting tin cans off the ditch bank by the time I was 8 years old. Using a BB gun mind you, but progressed up to a 12 Guage double barrel in time, with a little hobby target shooting with a 22 pistol.

It's still a step of childhood here, to learn young just what a gun can do, and how to handle one safely. From these early leasons of responsibility and survival many find only the long lasting joy and serenity of walking through the woods in the peace and quiet, never intending to kill anything, but with that gun, they know there's a better chance of getting home safely.

Now that's why the people I know stand up for the right to remain armed. And yes, most own AR15s and know how to use them. Why? It's a thing. I have my 12 Guage single and 22 pistol that I've not had to use, thank goodness. But I feel better having them. When I lived in the city I didn't own any guns. I didn't feel the need.

That's ONE view on America's fascination with gun ownership.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I had bows myself in the past. Great satisfaction shooting them.

I had a real AR-15 when I was out off the military but I got rid of it before the People's Republic of New York banned them. I'm happy with shotguns and long rifle enough but bows and crossbows do have that aspect of nostalgia that can't be shaken when using them. Fortunately I'm not too far away from an archery range.

I don't have enough land to shoot with my rifle as per Maine law, but I do for archery. I love shooting on chilly fall days.

 

[Twilight Hue]

And I was always told my dad could shoot from the hip just like Lucas McCain when they went hunting. They said a rabbit didn't stand a chance hopping across field rows. There was pride in being able to handle a gun properly, whether it was to protect the children from cotton mouths, bring home meat for the family table, or put down an injured/sick animal.
I was shooting tin cans off the ditch bank by the time I was 8 years old. Using a BB gun mind you, but progressed up to a 12 Guage double barrel in time, with a little hobby target shooting with a 22 pistol.

It's still a step of childhood here, to learn young just what a gun can do, and how to handle one safely. From these early leasons of responsibility and survival many find only the long lasting joy and serenity of walking through the woods in the peace and quiet, never intending to kill anything, but with that gun, they know there's a better chance of getting home safely.

Now that's why the people I know stand up for the right to remain armed. And yes, most own AR15s and know how to use them. Why? It's a thing. I have my 12 Guage single and 22 pistol that I've not had to use, thank goodness. But I feel better having them. When I lived in the city I didn't own any guns. I didn't feel the need.

That's ONE view on America's fascination with gun ownership.

One thing I never did but would love to do before I pass on is to fire a black powder rifle and pistol. I did want to participate in a civil war reenactment.

Nor sure I can fulfill that desire anymore.

 

[Spice]

I had bows myself in the past. Great satisfaction shooting them.

I had a real AR-15 when I was out off the military but I got rid of it before the People's Republic of New York banned them. I'm happy with shotguns and long rifle enough but bows and crossbows do have that aspect of nostalgia that can't be shaken when using them. Fortunately I'm not too far away from an archery range.

I grew up shooting a long bow, two. I have a little kids archery set on my back porch I mess around with occasionally. I'm definitely not very good anymore, but neither is my bowling ability. However, on the Wii hunting game, I can drop some ducks! I haven't lost my "eye."

 

[Twilight Hue]

I grew up shooting a long bow, two. I have a little kids archery set on my back porch I mess around with occasionally. I'm definitely not very good anymore, but neither is my bowling ability. However, on the Wii hunting game, I can drop some ducks! I haven't lost my "eye."

Yea, lol. Thanks to video games. I could go for hours practicing with my bow in Kingdom Come Deliverance.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Krusty the Clown: "They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals and keeping the king of England out of your face."

 

[Guitar's Cry]

One thing I never did but would love to do before I pass on is to fire a black powder rifle and pistol. I did want to participate in a civil war reenactment.

Nor sure I can fulfill that desire anymore.

That's something I would love to try as well!

 

[Spice]

When you share your world with these nasty, aggressive creatures you want to balance the scales on a possible battle.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Have never owned a gun, never shot a gun, and never wanted to. Don't see that changing any time soon.

But I'm just a Canadian, so what do I know?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Why?

I don't get it

Dan Carlin captured it well with his line "Americans never got over the closing of the frontier."

The United States national myth is wrapped around it being a nation of "frontier people."

Ever since the frontier closed - i.e. the middle of the country was declared to be fully settled and no longer wilderness, Americans have struggled with the idea of how to be a "frontier people" without a frontier.

It's like the samurai: during the warring states period, identifying a samurai - a warrior - was straightforward: if you fought in wars, you were a warrior. But then in the period of protracted peace, they needed some other way for the samurai - who had become civil servants, basically - to express their identity as warriors, so they decided what it meant to do government bookkeeping "like a warrior" or take meeting minutes "like a warrior" and then did that.

We see a similar thing in the US. On the actual frontier, people didn't need to signal that they were frontierspeople; they were because they lived on the literal frontier.

... but today with no frontier, Americans who identify with that "frontier mentality" have tried to figure out what it means to hang out in their suburban house "like a frontiersperson," how to commute to their desk job in an office "like a frontiersperson," etc., etc.

The result is a sort of cosplay involving things like guns and pickup trucks.

 

[Eddi]

Dan Carlin captured it well with his line "Americans never got over the closing of the frontier."

The United States national myth is wrapped around it being a nation of "frontier people."

Ever since the frontier closed - i.e. the middle of the country was declared to be fully settled and no longer wilderness, Americans have struggled with the idea of how to be a "frontier people" without a frontier.

It's like the samurai: during the warring states period, identifying a samurai - a warrior - was straightforward: if you fought in wars, you were a warrior. But then in the period of protracted peace, they needed some other way for the samurai - who had become civil servants, basically - to express their identity as warriors, so they decided what it meant to do government bookkeeping "like a warrior" or take meeting minutes "like a warrior" and then did that.

We see a similar thing in the US. On the actual frontier, people didn't need to signal that they were frontierspeople; they were because they lived on the literal frontier.

... but today with no frontier, Americans who identify with that "frontier mentality" have tried to figure out what it means to hang out in their suburban house "like a frontiersperson," how to commute to their desk job in an office "like a frontiersperson," etc., etc.

The result is a sort of cosplay involving things like guns and pickup trucks.

Canada also used to be a frontier, did it not?

How come Canadians are not so enamoured with firearms?

 

[PureX]

Why?

I don't get it

As the corporations have robbed and humiliated the American people more and more thoroughly and effectively over the last 50 years, they have driven the American male, in particular, into a situation of humiliating servitude and powerlessness. Many men's wives can find jobs before they can. And they often can make more money. Many women see no need for a man at all. They can be their own bread-winner. Or get divorced and raise their kids on their own with a job and the X's child support. Or with no job and welfare. And so on.

There are endless ways and examples of how the American male has been increasingly diminished and rendered superfluous as an important and respected social entity. And this loss has had a deep and damaging psychological effect on a lot of men. Leaving many American men feeling weak, and powerless, and disrespected.

And angry.

And resentful. And looking to reclaim their 'rightful place' back on the top of the social power pyramid. And that's where the guns become an thing. Those guns are a totem for that respect, and power, and righteous anger. Feeling experiences that a lot of American men are yearning for. So they like to buy those guns, and to practice shooting them, and to feel that feeling of power, and control, and respect. And feeling the comradery with the other men doing the same. And perhaps to imagine using that power against some 'bad guy' that might choose to threaten or 'disrespect their domain'.

You get the idea.

Guns give a lot of American males the sense of power and autonomy and authority, back, that modern capitalism has taken away from them. Unfortunately, when we so greatly increase the number of guns that are out there, we also greatly increase the likelihood that they will be abused and that people will die as a result. And so those guns are being abused and many people are dying as a result.

 

[Spice]

Dan Carlin captured it well with his line "Americans never got over the closing of the frontier."

The United States national myth is wrapped around it being a nation of "frontier people."

Ever since the frontier closed - i.e. the middle of the country was declared to be fully settled and no longer wilderness, Americans have struggled with the idea of how to be a "frontier people" without a frontier.

It's like the samurai: during the warring states period, identifying a samurai - a warrior - was straightforward: if you fought in wars, you were a warrior. But then in the period of protracted peace, they needed some other way for the samurai - who had become civil servants, basically - to express their identity as warriors, so they decided what it meant to do government bookkeeping "like a warrior" or take meeting minutes "like a warrior" and then did that.

We see a similar thing in the US. On the actual frontier, people didn't need to signal that they were frontierspeople; they were because they lived on the literal frontier.

... but today with no frontier, Americans who identify with that "frontier mentality" have tried to figure out what it means to hang out in their suburban house "like a frontiersperson," how to commute to their desk job in an office "like a frontiersperson," etc., etc.

The result is a sort of cosplay involving things like guns and pickup trucks.

I would disagree with this assessment. The suburban homesteaders, from my experience, is generally against guns. Perhaps a 410 to protect their backyard chickens.

However, your suburban MAGAs have been indoctrinated into the fearful world of upcoming neighbor aggression and spend loads of money on conceal carry classes, licenses, and specially designed handbags for the lady's gun. I don't worry too much though. My friend that has several of those handbags can never seem to find anything in it.

 

[Spice]

As the corporations have robbed and humiliated the American people more and more thoroughly and effectively over the last 50 years, they have driven the American male, in particular, into a situation of humiliating servitude and powerlessness. Many men's wives can find jobs before they can. And they often can make more money. Many women see no need for a man at all. They can be their own bread-winner. Or get divorced and raise their kids on their own with a job and the X's child support. Or with no job and welfare. And so on.

There are endless ways and examples of how the American male has been increasingly diminished and rendered superfluous as an important and respected social entity. And this loss has had a deep and damaging psychological effect on a lot of men. Leaving many American men feeling weak, and powerless, and disrespected.

And angry.

And resentful. And looking to reclaim their 'rightful place' back on the top of the social power pyramid. And that's where the guns become an thing. Those guns are a totem for that respect, and power, and righteous anger. Feeling experiences that a lot of American men are yearning for. So they like to buy those guns, and to practice shooting them, and to feel that feeling of power, and control, and respect. And feeling the comradery with the other men doing the same. And perhaps to imagine using that power against some 'bad guy' that might choose to threaten or 'disrespect their domain'.

You get the idea.

Guns give a lot of American males the sense of power and autonomy and authority, back, that modern capitalism has taken away from them. Unfortunately, when we so greatly increase the number of guns that are out there, we also greatly increase the likelihood that they will be abused and that people will die as a result. And so those guns are being abused and many people are dying as a result.

This I can agree with as I see it in various degrees.