by Breakage » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:23 am
I really don't understand why guns are so important to you guys. I'm not talking about the rights and wrongs of the law or whatever, just why is such a huge part of Americans collective consciousness ? People in the UK just don't think about guns, we hear about them on the news infrequently and that is about it, even in high crime areas like I live in, it's still just not something that enters my daily thoughts.
What I want to understand is why there seems to be this need for for a gun. When I think of a gun I just think, what the f**k would I want that for ? What would I do with it ? If my life ever changed so much that I had a real need for a gun to make me feel safer, I'd change my life before getting a gun. I realise that some people could claim they need guns because they live in high crime areas, but people here live in high crime areas (me) and still don't need a gun. Are people in the US using their constitutionally protected guns to defend themselves from crime ? Does that happen a lot ?
It just seems to me that there are millions of gun owners in the US who have never actually used their gun in anything that would resemble a life or death situation and that this obsession with firearms and the ability to own them seems a bit unwarranted... almost fetishism.
This is not meant to insult, or flamebait, it's just a sincere "I don't get it" post.