Americans still stick our dicks in things we don't understand so our Europeon cousins are allowed that same right or privilege dependent of government permission. They do help bring an outsiders perspective to the problem and can show why other countries and peoples do things differently.Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:That's true enough, and it's not that I want to be dismissive of non-American perspectives in most matters. In this particular case, however, it's uniquely unhelpful. I mean, as Americans we usually hear no end of it about how ignorant we are of whatever other country's internal culture and should keep our noses out of the rest of the world's business. Which is fair. But squid pro row. I hear a lot of non-Americans interject themselves in this debate, citing how x or y country doesn't have guns and does fine, why can't you Americans figure it out? Well, there's your answer; you don't have guns like America does and are ignorant of the internal culture. What gets exported by Hollywood is not representative of how America actually functions.
Even the liberal, urbane parts of this country are, I think, sometimes pretty ignorant of the rest of this country. I'm lucky in a sense, in that my father's side of the family are all ranchers scattered around rural Colorado, and that's a very different America than urban and suburban America. Guns are not just self-defense weapons, they're also vital tools for dealing with the mountain lions and bears of America's vast wilderness that surrounds rural areas, not to mention the more mundane concern of hunting game. If you have a pet dog (nevermind livestock), and you live on a relatively isolated ranch... mountain lions occasionally get hungry, and you're going to want a gun whenever they decide your golden retriever looks like a good meal.
The problem is when they think they automatically knows whats best, when they try to inject their own countries culture onto another, and speak of things they have no idea about as if it was fact and refuse to acknowledge any different. America is different, different in culture, different in size, different in laws and customs, just different. We have a different perspective and history on guns then Eurocommies which is something they don't seem to grasp. Its like when people from Euroland talk about how its strange we don't have a national public transit system because they don't understand the sheer size of America (its like our waistlines and fake titties, its pretty big) and the car culture that makes riding the bus not something alot of people like to do.
And it was the same for me growing up as it was with you, guns weren't penis compensators but tools to eat and protect oneself with. At times especially during winter when we couldn't make it out to the store it was hunt or go hungry. To walk around on our property carrying a gun was a must because of snakes, bears, mountain lions, psycho turkeys, and who knows what else (maybe insane inbred rednecks? Never ran into any but you never know). Much like with someone in a big ol city with them there trains what run underground and them fancy glass buildings with the movin' pictures on the sides who might carry a firearm for defense I never had to actually fire a gun at a threat but very easily I might have needed to, I had friends growing up who were attacked by wild animals. Worse I was ever attacked by was some turkeys though that was bad enough. Fucking psycho birds. Don't know what I did to piss them off but was walking in the woods when a whole swarm of the bastards came out me and my sister.
Apparently wild turkey attacks have got pretty common as of late even outside rural areas.
