Why do guns matter more to Americans than...

Last week, I was reading a thread about sheriff warning about coming 2nd revolution and this raised a few questions to myself as non-American. I do not want this to turn into some America-bashing thread or a anti/pro-gun discussion. Rather I am interested in the reasons why.

For me, as an outsider (non-American), there are seemingly so many other things in US, that would be very hard for myself to tolerate (if I was American):

-You ,guys, are getting screwed over in every possibly way by different corporations, who are influencing the laws by lobby-work.
-Your government is paying for healthcare more per capita than Norway, one of the most expensive countries in the world, does, times more than I do, yet the average joe can not receive quality healthcare without paying significant amount for it due to incredible costs.This can often lead to lower productivity rates for poorer people due to not being able to treat themselves fully. While at the same time Norwegians get all their health problems fixed without paying something extra.
-Receiving higher education without getting into debt is hard, unless the young person has rich parents or truly has remarkable talent. While near to every job requires college degree.
-Public education is also not doing the best, considering PISA tests, which compare education systems and knowledge of youth around the world. Seemingly again, the for-profit profit schools are setting the standards for education and without paying, you do not receive that much, especially when living in poorer area.
-Your police is out of control, at least based on ATS picture.
-The environmental standards, as well as health standards of different products are quite low due to corporations wanting cheaper alternatives instead of using quality ingredients or simply cut the costs for higher profits. I am not going deep into this, but well comparing FDA list of banned ingredients and the EU one, you can see what I mean -there are not many, if at all, US corporate products (foods), which would not be legal to sell in most EU countries, from the antibiotic-enriched meat to different coloured products. The GM-foods do not need to be labelled and as much as I hear cover majority of the land as well as shop shelves. Fracking. Seemingly corporations are dictating the standards, rather than people.
-Your employee rights are one of the lowest in the world, not having paid mother leave, paid sick leave, required vacation time etc etc.
-The social mobility is very low compared to other advanced nations, meaning it is far more likely that a kid from poor family stays poor and the kid from rich family stays rich in the future - moving social ladders is tougher.
-The constant outsourcing to other countries, while the minimum wage is below the living wage.
-For-profit prison industry costing billions to tax-payers every year, while often the punishments, even for low-level crimes are incredibly long.
-etc etc. Possibly you could come up with many other issues.

As I said, I do not want it to become America-bashing thread, but seemingly there are many problems out there too. Maybe I am a very different person value-wise, but for me it matters that me/my future kids can receive quality education without going into extreme debt, that I would not have need to worry about possible illnesses and the cost of treating these, that I could know what is in my foods and that it is not unhealthy, that the environment laws are strict, that I/my future kids can survive easily without having to work 45-50 hours a week, which can lead to disastrous health effects later on in life, to live without having the need to worry about my future/my kid´s future, as at the end that is what I am/my parents were, my kids will be paying for by paying the taxes. All that, at least for me as a person, is far more imporant than having some piece of metal at home, so I could defend myself from some unknown threat.

All that is the reason, why I always find it bizarre reading the second American revolution-like threads, which in majority of cases have something to do with the 2nd amendment. I would get when any of the reasons I mentioned above would lead to some civil unrest, but the fact that some type of rifle (not handgun, sporting/hunting gun) is banned or some law trying to not allow firearms to people with mental issues, seriously?

So I would ask : Could someone please me explain the reason for this, as after being in ATS for a while already, that is something I still find incredibly hard to grasp... The importance of guns in American culture.

type the words "restrictions on guns" or "gun control" in the search function, and you'll have hundreds of hours of reading material, amid thousands of opinions...to put it mildly, this topic has been posted to death

reply to post by Cabin


Everything wrong with our country (or any country) is connected to the state.

An armed populous is the only counter to the state however symbolic one may choose to consider that threat.

"The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments."

-Ludwig von Mises

reply to post by Cabin


Please don't take this as a snarky reply.

When your born with these rights it just can't be explained to an outsider.

Your police is out of control, at least based on ATS picture.

Citizens having guns wouldn't be any kind of deterrence to the above?
Think what our cops would be like if we didn't have any.

reply to post by Cabin


Instead of looking at it as Americans standing for guns opposed to this list of other things, try looking at it as Americans actually standing for SOMETHING as opposed to nothing.

jimmyx
type the words "restrictions on guns" or "gun control" in the search function, and you'll have hundreds of hours of reading material, amid thousands of opinions...to put it mildly, this topic has been posted to death

Well said.
Happy for the rare occasion to star one of your posts.

reply to post by Cabin


Forgive me a one line post but are you American?

Oooo Cabin opened up a can of worms here *Gets popcorn out to enjoy the show* good luck.
(just waiting to educate others on UK gun laws).

You're not American, Cabin, right? In a nutshell, it's because Americans, the professional consumers we are, are more concerned with our "things" than we are our quality of life. And one of those "things" (guns) is the cornerstone of what we think are the most important rights. It makes no sense to me, either, that a projectile weapon holds more importance than other legal rights. We're the world's Short Bus country in that respect.

With everything happening, and all the evil in this country; sometimes it feels nice just to drive out to the desert and shoot my AR for a couple hours.
Maybe it's just me, but collecting is what it's all about. I'm more interested in collecting guns than I am shooting them.
Guns are in my blood. My ancestors came out west with the rest of the Pioneers (I'm Irish so I assume they were looking for work). Back in those days, guns were a way of life.

Nyiah
You're not American, Cabin, right? In a nutshell, it's because Americans, the professional consumers we are, are more concerned with our "things" than we are our quality of life. And one of those "things" (guns) is the cornerstone of what we think are the most important rights. It makes no sense to me, either, that a projectile weapon holds more importance than other legal rights. We're the world's Short Bus country in that respect.

edit on 3/11/2014 by Nyiah because: (no reason given)

What a bunch of B.S, gun owners also believe in all rights that are listed in our constitution.
We get very defensive when people want to strip some of those rights away, start stripping our freedom of speech and see if we don't have the same emotions as stripping the 2nd from us.

thesaneone
reply to post by Cabin

 

Please don't take this as a snarky reply.

When your born with these rights it just can't be explained to an outsider.

Americans always act as if they are the only people on the planet with rights. Such a shame most of them do not realise they are almost directly taken from the Common laws of England and the Magna Carta.

It is extremely grating, especially since your government seems hellbent on openly doing to you what other governments would never dare to be so open about.

Nolimits

Americans always act as if they are the only people on the planet with rights. Such a shame most of them do not realise they are almost directly taken from the Common laws of England and the Magna Carta.

It is extremely grating, especially since your government seems hellbent on openly doing to you what other governments would never dare to be so open about.

So all governments do what the U.S does but just keeps it a secret?

It is pretty simple they matter for the same reason many things in Amrica matter. They have big corporate money promoting them and making sure Congress is getting some extra cash not to regulate them. What is the best way to promote guns sales? Make a up a story about somebody wanting to take them away. It is a buisness like any other. Just like every year around super bowl time a wing shortage is declared and everybody runs out and stocks up. Sheep are easly scared.

butcherguy

jimmyx
type the words "restrictions on guns" or "gun control" in the search function, and you'll have hundreds of hours of reading material, amid thousands of opinions...to put it mildly, this topic has been posted to death

Well said.
Happy for the rare occasion to star one of your posts.

tks...I think...(puzzled look, due to your use of "rare occasion"), I do love cynical humor....www.google.com...# q=cynical+humor&tbm=isch&imgdii=_

"inside every cynical person, is a disappointed idealist".....George Carlin

reply to post by Cabin

Because all of those things will get worse and more horrific issues, when the population is disarmed.

Here is my question. Why do you care???

Capitalism in action. They've been brought up to think buying things is a way of expressing their freedom.

Give a man a shiny toy that provides a false impression of freedom and they'll be too busy playing with it or protecting their right to own one than pay attention to the real rights and freedoms that are removed on a daily basis.

Quick there's (yet another) unfounded rumour that the US government will crack down on gun ownership - better buy, buy, buy while you still can and repeat after me 'I am free'.

Nolimits




Americans always act as if they are the only people on the planet with rights. Such a shame most of them do not realise they are almost directly taken from the Common laws of England and the Magna Carta.

You may have rights, but you don't have OUR rights.

reply to post by bastion


Are you talking about obamacare?