Current Events > Americans. Please explain gun culture to me a Canadian

(+) Yeah! (+)

Please explain to me the gun culture in U.S.A and explain to me why having some kind of gun control seem so bad.

Bro ur literally attached to us, u aint sum foreign continent u kno what america is like

I think a lot of Americans seem to think that gun control = no guns at all.

I've met Americans who think that there's no guns in Canada, which is pretty laughable.

Dumbs gonna dumb

You see, Jesus invented guns because he wanted us to be safe. And then he got killed. So now in his memory we need to spend every 4th of July shooting off $3000 in ammo. #JesususedanAR-15
/ sarcasm

Republicans have defined the 2nd amendment to their own liking, turning it into "Every American has a right to own a gun". Shitholes like Texas have made it so much easier to get a gun that they no longer do things like background checks, waiting periods, etc. The NRA (National Rifle Association) has pumped countless millions into politician's pockets to get these kind of rules enabled/changed. Gun culture is ingrained into kids of gun-owning parents from a young age, and the cycle continues.

The founders didn't want a standing national army, so the idea was to keep militias all over the place who could become an army when needed.

a-c-a-b posted...

I think a lot of Americans seem to think that gun control = no guns at all.

I've met Americans who think that there's no guns in Canada, which is pretty laughable.

This, pretty much.

Many Americans are extremely afraid of just living in the world. They're convinced that they need a gun in their house because a gang of murderers might break into their home at night and kill their family. They're afraid of leaving the house without a concealed pistol because they're afraid that someone will shoot them while they're trying to buy groceries. They're afraid that they'll need to start another revolution because Democrat communists might take over the country and turn their kids gay. They are just utterly terrified of everything, of being caught in a situatiin where they don't have control.

2nd amendment says we are allowed to own guns

Americans associate their commodity consumption with their identity and they do it with guns. NRA weaponizes this as a political identity and organize around it along with the right wingers.

Bleuets posted...

2nd amendment says we are allowed to own guns

The Supreme Court just said the fourth amendment doesn't matter. We should treat the second the same way.

Theres more people here than up there. You have us protecting your Southern border and snow/water on all other sides so natural borders.

We have to protect two coasts and two borders.

CreekCo posted...

Theres more people here than up there. You have us protecting your Southern border and snow/water on all other sides so natural borders.

We have to protect two coasts and two borders.

Nobody is capable of doing a land invasion on us. About the only thing that could reach us is an ICBM.

CreekCo posted...

Theres more people here than up there. You have us protecting your Southern border and snow/water on all other sides so natural borders.

We have to protect two coasts and two borders.

Holy shit, someone thinks this is real.

bluezero posted...

Holy shit, someone thinks this is real.

Geography?

buncha insecure knobs need boomy sticks to feel strong and powerful

Guns are fun to shoot and many Americans fetishize shooting authority figures. That's about it.

They'll wrap it up in arbitrary words and abstract arguments, but those are the two most common motivations.

Bleuets posted...

2nd amendment says we are allowed to own guns

in order to have a well regulated militia, but you "2A" people conveniently forget that last part and flip your collective shit anytime people suggest any sort of reform or regulation for your power sticks.

Sure thing pal. This video will explain everything and in less than 2 minutes (please watch the whole infomercial).

https://youtu.be/45glq7huJJc

Giant_Aspirin posted...

in order to have a well regulated militia, but you "2A" people conveniently forget that last part and flip your collective shit anytime people suggest any sort of reform or regulation for your power sticks.

A militia is an armed group of people that band together for a common cause. Not everyone was a member of the Continental Army during the Revolution. Most of the local fighters were simple farmers and lay people that had access to and knew how to use firearms. Without the local militias the colonists would have been decimated before the War even got rolling. An armed populace is much harder to bend to control than an unarmed one. The Founders intended to keep this freedom in case of an oppressive government or invading force. Well-trained militia does not imply government trained army like people are trying to make it seem.

Nra gives republicans money. Republicans tell their gullible base they need guns for.... reasons. Gullible base convinced themselves they need guns.

every US citizen has the right to a firearm (for the most part). some take it more serious than others and some forget why we have it.

scorpion41 posted...

Well-trained militia does not imply government trained army like people are trying to make it seem.

the word 'regulated', which you conveniently ignored (like most 2A people do), is what is important to take away.

Bleuets posted...

2nd amendment says we are allowed to own guns

No, it doesn't. It has been interpreted that way, but that's not what it actually says.

Notably, a lot of diehards ignore the word regulated.

It's often an ego thing. Guns = power. More guns = more power. More power = "I'm better than people who I perceive as having less power." American exceptionalism is all about being "better" than everyone else. Gun culture is just another opportunity for the individual to assert dominance as an individual, thereby creating and enforcing a social hierarchy. Republicans love hierarchies because the power imbalance feeds their egos, and most hardcore gun enthusiasts are, unsurprisingly, Republicans.

a-c-a-b posted...

I think a lot of Americans seem to think that gun control = no guns at all.

This.

scorpion41 posted...

An armed populace is much harder to bend to control than an unarmed one.

the irony is that you're now being bended and controlled far more than if some enemy walked up to you right now sticking a gun in your face xd

dunno what's worse though, that you're being controlled like the puppet you are or the fact that you don't realize you're being controlled while trying to convince yourself you're the one in control xd

TheOnionKnight posted...

Gun culture is just another opportunity for the individual to assert dominance as an individual,

correct. the 'rugged individualism' that is aggressively embraced by 40% of the country (ie Republicans)

its basically like waifu culture only dangerous

Nothing more American than a school shooting.

Basically in america guns are a huge power fantasy/cultural influence and dramatically politicized by the rrepublican party due to lobbying and touted as one of the basic rights of America and one of the greatest ones because of the revolutionary War

Even though most Americans probably can't recite even more than 5 of all these amazing rights that are amendable in the first place.

CreekCo posted...

Theres more people here than up there.

Now compare the shootings per capita.

Collat posted...

Now compare the shootings per capita.

Comparatively speaking, theres almost no one up there per square mile.

CreekCo posted...

Comparatively speaking, theres almost no one up there per square mile.

Guess you don't know what per capita means.

Collat posted...

Guess you don't know what per capita means.

Can't have a mass shooting if the next four people over are a couple miles apart.
Unless, of course, you're a really good sniper.

Trickle, trickle?

So, imagine if Hockey Canada was completely devoted to promoting guns and gun ownership, rather than developing hockey as a national sport in Canada. Thats basically the National Rifle Association, in America. They have spent decades spending millions of dollars ($50 million in 2018 alone) that they mostly receive from corporate partnerships withyou guessed it, gun manufacturersto put out marketing to promote and normalize gun ownership, with a focus in more recent decades of promoting the idea that the world is a scary place full of dangerous people and government is hell bent on banning all guns and that the second amendment is sacred and must be defended at all cost because if you cant own a gun legally then theres nothing you can do to protect yourself from the danger that will most assuredly come for you.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/9/AAVdKdAADU1j.jpg

Thats not even touching on the political lobbying. Between its direct campaign donations, its political action committee, the NRA Victory Fund, and its lobbying arm, The Institute for Legislative Action, the NRA spent over $35 million during the 2020 election cycle. And thats just the money we can track, and not including outside donations to the NRA Victory Fund, which spent an additional $15 million from outside donors on political advertisements.

So yeah. When people talk about how Americans love their guns, and our gun culture, how we are all paranoid and have hero complexes, and how its just normal in this country, its important to understand that that didnt just come about naturally. Its the result of a generations-long marketing blitz, bought and paid for by the companies who make and sell the guns.

CreekCo posted...

Theres more people here than up there. You have us protecting your Southern border and snow/water on all other sides so natural borders.

We have to protect two coasts and two borders.

So you're simultaneously saying that Canada doesn't need guns because there's another country on their southern border, but America DOES need guns because there are other countries on their northern and southern borders?

Questionmarktarius posted...

Can't have a mass shooting if the next four people over are a couple miles apart.
Unless, of course, you're a really good sniper.

Schools still exist here you know? Guess you only know they exist when they get shot up though.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Can't have a mass shooting if the next four people over are a couple miles apart.
Unless, of course, you're a really good sniper.

Guys, mass shootings only take place at your house. Not at a school or business or church or anywhere people gather.

Giant_Aspirin posted...

in order to have a well regulated militia, but you "2A" people conveniently forget that last part and flip your collective shit anytime people suggest any sort of reform or regulation for your power sticks.

It is insane how republicans changed the 2nd amendment to fit their needs. Originally everyone thought it meant a well regulated state militia had the right to bear arms, not every random insane idiot out there.

For whatever reason weve made guns an american thing. So therefore they must be easy to obtain.

scorpion41 posted...

An armed populace is much harder to bend to control than an unarmed one.

Lol, you serious? Look at how the right has been bent and molded into what the Republicans want, and they're the fucking most armed of us all. They were so easily controlled they literally tried to shit all over the constitution they so desperately claim to love because of the 2nd amendment when they tried to overthrow the government and install a tin pot dictator.

*Most* gun owners are normal people who don't have their entire identity revolve around guns, trucks and motorcycles. In fact most gun owners don't advertise that they own them (great way to get robbed). I own 12 but there's nothing on my car (stickers etc) or on/in my home to indicate there are guns here, they're all kept in their own hidden room behind a false wall, with the exception of my G2C which is either on my nightstand or in my table in the living room. Unless I have guests over, then all guns are secured.

Like any other group in the US, gun owners are mostly normal people who unfortunately are represented by the loudest and dumbest of us in the hobby/culture.

a-c-a-b posted...

I think a lot of Americans seem to think that gun control = no guns at all.

I've met Americans who think that there's no guns in Canada, which is pretty laughable.

Bro they are literally banning handguns in Canada right now.

LightHawKnight posted...

It is insane how republicans changed the 2nd amendment to fit their needs. Originally everyone thought it meant a well regulated state militia had the right to bear arms, not every random insane idiot out there.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

scorpion41 posted...

An armed populace is much harder to bend to control than an unarmed one.

Hahahaha, this is the funniest joke I've read here.

yemmy posted...

Bro they are literally banning handguns in Canada right now.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Constitutional scholars who spend their life on that shit go with this:

The overwhelming consensus was that the Second Amendment gave state militias a right to obtain and bear arms, but it did it not give individuals any rights. The words of the Second Amendment are ungrammatical and difficult to understand in the best of circumstances. But if you look at the history and context of the amendment, including other references to state militias in the Constitution, it suggests that the amendment only applied to state militias.

1977 is really a key moment here, because thats when the National Rifle Association went from being a largely apolitical gun-safety organization to a mobilized political operation that was dedicated to fighting gun control. It both reflected and reinforced the growing conservatism of the Republican Party generally.
You had Orrin Hatch, when he was chairman of the judiciary subcommittee, putting forth a major report [PDF] that said all the courts were wrong about the Second Amendment. You have Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court starting to advocate a renewed understanding of the Second Amendment. The country appears to have gotten more sympathetic to the argument that guns make people safer, not more dangerous.
The idea that the Second Amendment gives individuals a right to bear arms was advocated so forcefully, so broadly and so persuasively that Democrats gave up on fighting the issue.

The second amendment didn't refer to individual rights until 2008, I thought everyone knew that

yemmy posted...

Bro they are literally banning handguns in Canada right now.

Awesome, let's do it here