I disagree with a lot of those stereotypes about Americans. I didn't even get into that. The topic was about guns. The US and the UK have probably the best uni education out there...
It's amazing you mention that about history. Europe was swept by a whole bunch of Independence wars and formations of states in the late18th-19th century. How are Americans special enough regarding that to justify their particular gun fetishism...
You're not reading between the lines. I just wrote about the categories. Look at the categories such as....
- Other than felony type
- Other arguments
- Unknown
- Other not specified
Suicide, accidents, mishandling, self defense unspecified and unknown are the only ones that spike in the broad range.
Other felony type is also listed. This would mean armed robbery, which is literally a different felony type than murder in most cases, cause they robber lets the victim live most of the time.
The whole western world is being disillusioned by their government and the political landscape right now, but that doesn't mean it's because the government is bad or underhanded. As I see it, the problem isn't bad governments per se, it's that people want easy solutions to hard problems.
Not trusting your government in a mature democracy (that's doing well for the most part) seems strange to me.
Ed Ed Ed...
smh
Gun fetishism is one of those things... like an unmarried woman lying to strangers about a fake wedding ring (btdt) or a highschool kid purchasing a new vehicle.
There's a whole ritual that goes along with it. Ofc their guns are fetish objects. But your smug European paternalism won't make them change their little social rituals. It also won't change where they're from or the surrounding factors that make them believe they need their guns.
And you really should stay in one of the meaner cities in the US before you judge them. Go hang out with Crow or Sys for a week. I've been to the city Sys lives in. I never knew what it was like to fear for my life before that. I rode in a taxi that had been pelted with so many stray bullets that the owner sometimes got behind on replacing his windshield. I shit thee not. There were bulletholes all up dude's windshield when I got in.
I've met dozens of Canadian truck drivers who nearly died in drive by shootings. Americans are nuckin futs about their guns.
That's not to say that their belief that owning a gun will save them from all of this is rational. Just like flashing a fake wedding ring around won't save me from getting raped if some freak gets it in his head to do so.
What these little rituals do is offer some common ground for people to talk about themselves. (Yeah, I know how crazy it sounds to outsiders. lol) The guns are a social bonding ritual of sorts, like Aunt Martha's antique dinnerware that she inherited from some old ancestors who fought in the Civil War or w/e. I know people who flash their old musket collection around with the same sort of glowing pride that they wear when they show off a family portrait or some other heirloom. The cowboy history is very real to them.
This is why it's so difficult for anybody to do anything about American gun violence. It's like a tumour. It's in there so deep that the organism might not survive if you try too hard to yank it out.
"I also don't really see the need for an armed citizenry in a mature democracy like the US. No one's going to invade and occupy you and no one's going to declare themselves dictator for life. It's just too far-fetched."
History repeats itself and as the rest of the saying goes, those who do not learn from it are doomed to relive it. With how frequent scenarios like that have happened in the past, it's borderline arrogant to assume it will not or cannot happen again.
Yes, I hear you this time.
Ed and Inky seem to forget that when their countries were at the same point in their development that the Americans are at right now (250 years as a nation and a few hundred prior to that scoping out their territory) their forefathers were running around in loincloths washing their faces in each other's spit and piss, praying to horses and burning the fuck out of the Romans.
Real fuckin civilized. :D
"In what solid, democratic nations have that 'frequent scenario' happened?"
Few Americans see their countries democratic aspect as solid. Granted such a bold measure would be unprecedented, I see nothing wrong with a little insurance. Better safe than sorry in my eyes.
"And do you think that guns in the hands of the people would've prevented it?"
With the number of civilians owning firearms completely outnumbering military personnel, I'd say the 2nd amendment successfully deters our government from going against its people, directly anyhow