Clueless Aussie

Pontificates on crazy Americans and their guns.

Americans seem to be unique in their love of guns. Sure we have a few gun nuts in Australia but I have never read a serious suggestion that they influence the outcome of elections in the same way as the NRA influences politics in the USA.

You give too much credit to the NRA and too little to the American voter. Gun ownership is a right, not a priviledge, in America.

Americans harp on about the constitutional right to bear arms as if that is sufficient reason to explain why anyone would want to bear arms, when plainly it is not.

Well, when something's a right, there's really no reason to explain the why, now, is there? Anti- gun people like you like to harp on the "need" to own a firearm, and want us to explain "why" we do. We do because we can, because we want to. That's all we really should have to say. I'm sure you want more, so we'll continue.

Others point to the need for an armed militia, as if a bunch of blokes with flano shirts and hunting rifles could turn back the invading hordes of South Americans or Indonesians or Muslims or whoever stars in your own apocalyptic vision of the future.

Looks like you've watched too many "Mad Max" movies there, bud. Any time armed civilians (meaning non-military) people get together for protection, it's a militia. The latest example was during the aftermath of Katrina. People formed armed groups and patrolled their neighborhoods to prevent crime. They probably didn't even call themselves that, but it was what it was. Civilians arming themselves for the common defense.

It’s that unshakeable paranoia that convinces so many of these gun weirdos that they need to turn their homes into fortresses bristling with enough weaponry to equip a small third world army. Doesn’t matter what anyone says to them, they believe the world consists of people who want to attack them if only they get half a chance.

It's more like the Boy Scout motto "Be Prepared". It's a fact that there are people who would attack me if only they get half a chance. What should I do? Let them have their way, or defend myself and my family.

I choose to defend myself. You can roll yourself up in a little ball and hope to still be breathing this time tomorrow if you like, but I'll take a more active role in my future.

I do like his closing line, just after the paragraph quoted above:

Actually, that might also explain a lot about US foreign policy.

Heh

I think our foreign policy is weak. I'm more a Nuke the Moon kinda guy.