Why do Americans love guns so much?

Post Reply New Topic

I don't know what would happen in America but if Australian gun control laws don't reduce crime but do reduce crime that results in death then I'd consider that to be an improvement.

I don't believe banning handguns in a city such as Chicago would work since you can drive into Chicago with handguns from another part of the country.

Perhaps as you said, being on an island gives us an advantage. It's a lot harder to smuggle a gun through an airport than it is to smuggle a gun in a car. I have no doubt Australian criminals would use illegal guns if they could but there is simply no source.

I sincerely hope you do not see that guy as a typical American. He is not. He's rather a nut, actually.

I'd be more scared of an armed criminal than an unarmed criminal.

What are these armed criminals usually after?

Ariel. I am an advocate of gun control. But you have to understand the reasoning of some who advocate guns.

Like I said earlier, most parts of America are relatively safe from gun violence. But there are places in America where this is not the case.

I don't. I don't condemn a whole nation for words of a few guys.

Yet these guys seem to be really common. Even so I don't group all Americans with them.

You apparently also haven't been paying attention to the wars the US has been in the last 50 years, we're not fighting people with tanks and helicopters but we still lose. Irregular asymmetric warfare has defeated the two greatest military powers in history, the Soviet and American empire.

The least safest places in the US are the areas with the most gun control

Retro: Those sorts of guys might be common on some Internet sites.

But these sorts of guys are seen as being raging lunatics by most Americans, even those who advocate for guns.

Sorry I didn't mean that to sound insulting.

Touché

Perhaps a unified guerrilla revolution could defeat even the world's most powerful military but is American culture united enough to form a national rebel militia? Even guerrilla fighters have to be organised.

And yet, here I am living in a country where guns are not legal and I have never once been in a situation where I was afraid that someone was going to use a gun in my presence.

And the argument of people in the US is that they need them for protection. So why don't we? It's because they're illegal here, so we don't live in that constant state of fear that makes it seem reasonable to potentially 'have' to shoot someone, or to have ownership of dangerous weapons.

People have to separate the Internet from real life.

If the Internet was a microcosm of the world, we would be destroying our species.

The Internet "allows" people to express their basest emotions and to adopt personas.

It's possible that the guy Retro spoke with is actually a settled family man who adheres to the American Dream. But who wants to have fun with non-Americans.

I've been the victim of crime. You've been quite fortunate, Ariel.

Like I said, I am an advocate of gun control. But the other position has some justification, too.

I'm not saying that I've never been the victim of crime, but that I've never had to worry about guns being involved because I live in a country where they're controlled.

If I lived in the US, I would probably feel the need to own a gun because everyone else did (and it is horrifying, as a peaceful person, to think that I may have need to be in the position to harm or kill someone no matter that they were 'in the wrong' first), but I am fortunate to live in the UK where I don't need to worry about this because other people don't own guns either.

It's a catch 22 for the US. Everyone feels like they need to own them because everyone owns them.

Not eveybody in the US owns a gun. I don't. And I don't know anybody who does (at least openly).

It really depends upon the region of the US, and their attitude towards gun control.

A higher percentage of people own guns in a state like Texas than in a state like Massachusetts.

I guess New York City is different from the rest of the US. Most Americans own cars too but not New Yorkers.

Do they really not own guns in Massachusetts? I can understand Bostonians not owning guns but what about in the countryside? Those old fashioned Yankees all have guns or have I been reading too many Stephen King novels?