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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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F.S. Fitzgerald to Hemingway:
"Ernest, the rich are different from us."
Hemingway:
"Yes. They have more money."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @10:46PM
There was an interesting article I read years ago, although I can't find it anymore so I'll need to paraphrase it. The idea is that the gun culture and attitude in the US is driven a lot by cultural mythology (read: "stories which are thought to be important," which may or may not be true).
The concept in the US is that, "anybody can be the hero. All it takes is having the right tools at the right time." Look at all of the various hero stories, such as Die Hard, Rocky, Rambo, or even Forrest Gump. An ordinary person (no divine spark, reincarnation of a famous person, or anything "special" outside of grit and determination) who happens to have the right tools can work miracles. Also, note that these are generally individuals.
This was written in contrast with Japanese culture, in which, "true power comes from the chosen few, who are special from birth, and work as a team to get stuff done." This can be seen in things like the sentai [tvtropes.org] type stories (e.g. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, etc), Naruto, or similar. Only the special chosen few can make a difference ("Harry, you're a wizard"), and they innately have their power rather than it being from an external tool or device. If you give a muggle a wand then at best they'll have kindling.
The love of the gun is one of numerous manifestations of this mythology. The idea is, "if the government goes rogue/communists invade/a burglar tries to violate my spouse/nuclear war happens and society breaks down/whatever, then I and my fellow neighbors can save the day."
I'll also note that the article implicitly assumes that guns are bad and "what could be done to fix those dumb Americans?" For example, in describing why guns are "still number one" in the US they didn't list a single positive reason (e.g. hunting is fun, there are lots of violent crimes and the average wait for police to respond, etc). It would be just as easy to ask, "why are Britains so scared of guns," and end the article, "Why can't Britain change its gun laws?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @11:54PM
Is that you ESR? ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @04:19PM
The west has tons of stories about special people with a destiny.
Harry Potter
Nearly every superhero -- for example all the X-men are "born that way", superman, wonderwoman, even batman is special because he was born a billiionare
Jesus and half the people in the bible
All the greek and norse myths
Ayn Rand's myth of the uberman
In the east, most kung-fu movie emphasizes their enormous amount of training.
That we don't know about more says more about our cultural literacy than it does about asian mindsets
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @09:56AM
What, no MacGyver?