Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Famous
This isnt about gun ownership in general.
If a guy is tooled up in the middle of the woods, wearing an orange jacket and taking pot shots at wild animals - in America at least this is reasonable.
Its about the context of a guy who is tooled up, in a residential area, with kids and women around, who is aggressive when the police approach him. Im the last person to defend police, but they were correct to treat this guy with caution. And the resisting arrest charge suggests the guy was more aggressive than the poster wants to communicate.
Whatever articles you can quote, I cant see any reasonable reason for a sane person who does not wish to do anyone harm to be carrying a metal in the middle of the day in his own front garden!
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It's a combination of things, by my understanding.
First, it's upbringing. Most people that are gun-friendly here had guns as a religion in their household. The teaching was simple: you could be in danger, so why risk it? Have a gun.
In addition, there's the power. I don't know if you've ever handled a firearm, but they're fucking cool. Cold, precision steel, the connection with virtually every hero in American mythos; even the power of god, the ability to take a life and to make the determination as to whether someone deserves to live or die. Guns are fucking cool.
Finally, there's the government. The Second Amendment was originally about protecting one's self from tyranny. That ideal, the patriotic insurrection principle, runs surprisingly strong in the US, especially the South.
I don't list these to excuse the behavior, just to explain it.