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The love of guns in the United States has been well documented, as have multiple mass shootings across the country such as those in Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, and Virginia. The ease of access to guns in American society comes at a shocking cost.
As of September 2016, almost 11,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence. Despite this high death toll, mass shootings in America show no sign of disappearing.
The Stateside obsession with guns can appear baffling to UK observers unfamiliar with its origins. So just how did this gun culture become so deep-rooted in the American psyche?
BBC source: Why Are Americans so Obsessed with Guns?
Wikipedia: Gun politics in the United States
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Why Are Americans So Obsessed With Guns?
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Virtue is its own punishment.
-- Denniston
Righteous people terrify me ... virtue is its own punishment.
-- Aneurin Bevan
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @09:48PM
White people are too fragile to admit the obvious - the reason guns are a big deal in america is racism. The more racist someone is the more pro-gun they are.
Sure not every pro-gun person is pro-racism. And yeah some black people own guns too - especially in neighborhoods where the cops bust people for jaywalking but don't give a damn about violent crime. But you know when gun control became a big deal? When the black panthers started exercising their right to open carry. We had to shut that down right quick. That's when the NRA supported gun control. [theroot.com] Now, 50 years later, the situation is reversed. Thanks to the new jim crow (aka the war on drugs) so many black men have criminal records precluding them from legally carrying a gun that we don't need gun control laws to keep guns out of the hands of black folks. So time to ratchet those gun control laws back down.
for each 1 point increase in symbolic racism there was a 50% increase in the odds of having a gun at home," as well as "a 28% increase in support for permits to carry concealed handguns."
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077552 [plos.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by EvilSS on Monday January 09 2017, @10:04PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @10:18PM
So, gun ownership and gun control/bans are popular in the USA because racism? I think you need to examine your faulty logic circuit.
It is quite true that "gun control" was rooted in keeping guns out of black peoples' hands [jpfo.org]. That's about as far as you were correct, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @11:05PM
weak
try again
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @11:41PM
everybody's a little bit racist
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:59AM
Not everybody.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:22AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:54AM
Haven't you heard? Being "colorblind" and evaluating people on their own chosen behavior is now racist.
RIP "racist"; you were once a useful word with a valid definition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @09:20AM
> Being "colorblind" and evaluating people on their own chosen behavior is now racist.
Wah!
No, claiming to be colorblind while denying your own biases has always been racist.
It just took the racists a while to figure out how to co-opt the language of anti-racism to disguise their racism.
But you knew that already didn't you? You sound like you really want to believe your own bullshit, so you keep repeating it like a mantra hoping eventually you'll brainwash yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:55PM
Crying "racist!", as with the boy who cried wolf, no longer has any effect; attempting a kafkatrap [ibiblio.org] does not change the situation.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @02:42AM
Gun control is all about racism. Just as welfare is all about racism. Keep the darkies dependent, and keep them away from weapons. That is the Democratic party line. Blacks are the original reason Democrats fear guns. People like the Buzzard and I are only secondary reasons for Democrats to fear weapons. The occasional crazy shooting up a public venue are merely excuses used to justify the fear.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @02:47AM
Its like you are a bot that is starting to achieve self-awareness.
But you've been examining yourself in a mirror so your self-image is 180 degrees out of phase with reality.
How appropriate you would choose to post in a thread with this subject header.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:11AM
http://www.guns.com/2016/01/18/the-birth-of-a-gun-control-nation-a-backwards-glance-at-some-of-americas-first-gun-control-laws/ [guns.com]
For example, a statute passed in 1640 in the Commonwealth of Virginia forbade non-whites from carrying guns or weapons of any kind. A rash of like “codes” were adopted in a number of colonies prior to the Revolutionary War.
Gun control has always been racially motivated, and today's gun control advocates are no different from those of yesterday. You fear the Negro.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:26AM
Its convenient for you to ignore the fact the last 40 years of mass incarceration of black men have created an easy proxy for gun-control laws to keep guns out of the hands of black people.
Address that head on and then we can have a talk.
Until then you are just an intellectual coward hiding behind half truths.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:45AM
WTF? I have pointed out that people are convicted with unjust laws, for the purpose of denying their rights. Gun rights, voting rights, and more, are stripped upon conviction. Marijuana prohibition was aimed directly at the black communities. More recently, laws regarding crack cocaine are targeted directly at the black communities.
You appear to be preaching to the choir here, and don't even realize it.
Gun laws are primarily aimed at black people. The fact that they also entrap some (conservative) redneck white people is a bonus. Democrats hate all of us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:39AM
And your explanation for why the last 10+ years has seen expanded gun access laws not restrictions is... ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @07:17AM
Common people with functional brains getting fed up with bullcrap "laws" which only affect them, the common law-abiding folk, and taking action to demand that their so-called representatives show some modicum of respect to the plain language of the Second Amendment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @09:22AM
> Common people with functional brains getting fed up with bullcrap "laws" which only affect them
Didn't runaway just establish that gun-control laws have always been targeted at black people?
You won't find all that many black people advocating for more gun access.
Try again!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:10PM
Please, define "all that many" for us. If only ONE black person is denied a weapon BECAUSE HE IS BLACK, then our laws are unjust. Deny a gun to a black guy who is clearly nuts, and we're cool. Deny a gun to another black guy who is a demonstrable menace to society, we're still cool. But, when you deny a gun to a black guy BECAUSE HE IS BLACK, then you are the fascist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:57PM
Way to miss the forest for the trees: laws affect the law-abiding, regardless of skin color. Racist!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:08PM
Huh, wut? You're saying that democrat controlled cities and states are voluntarily relaxing gun control laws? Or, are you attempting to credit those democrats with Supreme Court rulings that have FORCED the democrats to accept more lenient gun laws?
Which laws have been rolled back in Chicago, and Illinois, may I ask?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:02PM
Ok, so faced with facts that don't fit your agenda, you just go into denail mode.
Republican controlled states have been passing more and more lax guns laws for the last decade.
Expanding the areas where people can legally carry to churches, schools, parks, workplaces etc.
Texas has gone from first permitting concealed carry about 20 years ago to now permitting open carry.
Missouri recently passed a new stand your ground law and eliminated the requirement for training before getting a CCW.
Its a really long list.
When you try to deflect away from those simple facts you are agenda driven instead of fact driven.
Democrats are the real racists! -- The rallying cry of actual racists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:59PM
So, logically, that makes you...?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @02:14AM
I would love to see you explain this theory to a group of infantry veterans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @02:34AM
Screw you and your false valor.
My am a vet. He's right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:20AM
Vets are a homogenous hivemind now? I'm also a vet - GGP is wrong: rural gun owners in particular care little for what others do so long as they aren't robbing, raping, murdering, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:29AM
OP is the one who started the homogeneity canard.
Your argument about "robbing, raping, murdering, etc" is the most common rationalization of a racial motivation for gun ownership.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:14AM
Gee, I guess that since "rationalization" over historical and ongoing fact is raaaacist, we'd best get rid of everyone's guns post-haste!
Dream on; "racism" as an insult is dead. You killed it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @05:20AM
> Dream on; "racism" as an insult is dead. You killed it.
Good thing you literally just resurrected it then.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @03:10PM
So far, the only person making stuff about race is you.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday January 10 2017, @08:16PM
You're right - black people never take photos of themselves holding pistols, pistols and other firearms have no place in rap lyrics, no gun-based sexual innuendos, etc.
Get a life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @05:56AM
Troll much? I have to assume you really aren't that stupid to make such an accusation that the more racist someone is the more guns he owns.
I'll share my position on guns... guns are machines with no intent, they are tools. For some they are tools of skill (target shooting), others they are fort self defense and in a minority they are a tool for crime. But, a gun itself does no wrong. It is the user that does wrong. I'm far from racist (I'm white but had almost exclusively black friends until my mid 20s) but, I do love my guns. The design of them, the art and science of them, the crafsamship of them. And, I will gladly admit that if you broke into my home or attempted to harm my family the last thing I would be thinking about is skin color. The first thought would be to take down the threat to my family and then happily shoot the person dead; for, if you break into my home you are immediately posing a threat to my family. I value my family and myself above and person that would break into my home or pose a threat to my family out in the world. If you don't value your family's life more than a threat then perhaps you don't deserve family.
Then, you have the whole approessor/tyranny of the state reason that the right to firearms exists in our constitution. Our founding fathers wanted to ensure we would be able to fight against any oppressor, foreign or domestic. I believe any state that does not permit its citizenry to possess and use firearms fears they may rise up against its tyranny.