# What is America's Fascination With Guns?



## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

I cannot tell you the amount of people who have asked me that question lately. I wrote up a longer thing about my trouble at the restaurant a few days ago and a lot of people are apparently looking at it. As per usual, they are focusing on a tiny little piece that has very little to do with the story - of course - and that is the whole thing about my revolver being in my purse.

So, of course, the biggest question askers are people from countries who don't allow you to defend yourself in way at all. What is America's fascination with guns?

1. It isn't a fascination, it's a Constitutional right.
2. What, exactly, is your fascination with America?

I got into a lot fights about this by saying it once before somewhere else, but I have a really big peeve about people in other countries attacking us about our laws when they don't involve them at all. If the laws involve them, then have at it. But they seem to focus a lot on laws that don't involve them. Last time I checked, not even my rifle could fire a bullet that fire, so what do they care if I have guns?

/rant


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## Revolver (Aug 26, 2006)

If you could give me a nation, I could give you a witty response. One of my favorites that applies to many of these nations(i.e. the UK) is "What is your country's fascination with violent crime?". It does one of two things, it either puts things in perspective for them or they go on about their anti-American hatred.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

Whole books (usually crappy ones, but I digress) have been written on this subject. Here are a few things to ponder, from my point of view.

Why America's fascination with guns?

- Constitutionally, the difference between a subject and a citizen.

- Defensively, one final option of last resort. If faced with an armed criminal or violent person, I have every one of the same options an unarmed person has, plus one. I can still run away, beg for my life, dial 911 and hope for the best, attempt to reason with the person, or whatever. If all that fails, or I'm not allowed the time to pursue these other courses, or the bad person is threatening another person's life (maybe someone near and dear to me), I have one last option in reserve. I hope I never have to use it, but it's one more chance at a favorable outcome for me and mine.

- Sportingly, guns are fun and challenging to use with a high level of skill (is "sportingly" a word? Well, it is now). From Olympic-level precision target shooting to bouncing a dirt clod on the forest floor to bringing home a full bag of game for dinner, guns are regularly used in many sporting applications.

- Psychologically, guns are tools of power projection. You shoot a bowling pin or steel plate, it falls down. A hole appears in your paper bullseye target. The deer is harvested for food. BANG! "See that, way over there? That's me, I did that!" You have projected power, expanded your personal sphere of influence. The better you are with your gun, the larger that sphere grows. By the way, did you know I can knock over a beverage bottle at 50 yards with my Glock? :mrgreen:

- Mechanically, absolutely amazing. Small, highly machined parts, designed thoughtfully, finished skillfully, mated perfectly, forming intricate and complex (or surprisingly simple) mechanisms containing pressures that might otherwise kill an unprotected person, yet able to direct a projectile over long distances with a high level of precision. Machineguns that have the capacity to stutter forth a seemingly endless stream of bullets despite heat buildup and vibrations that would destroy many similar-sized devices. Revolvers that have six or more separate firing chambers, but each are held to such close manufacturing and fitting tolerances with the barrel that a slug fired from each chamber will still land in nearly the same hole on a target. To study firearms is to study design, manufacturing, ergonomics, materials selection, corrosion resistance, modern production concepts, and cutting-edge technology (in ANY and every era).

- Historically, an American birthright. From the frontiersman hunting for his food as he explored a strange new (to him) land, through the first skirmishes of our earliest wars, to the rise of the greatest manufacturing giant the world has ever known, guns and America/Americans have always been linked like Siamese twins -- nearly inseparable.

- Artistically, guns can be a thing of beauty. A Renaissance Hi-Power, a Purdy exhibition-grade shotgun, a Swiss miniature, a gleaming Colt Python, an artfully executed custom dangerous-game rifle, any well-engraved firearm; guns are a part of the world of art, too.

That's my two cents worth. Thanks for letting me revisit *MY* fascination with guns.

(small edits to expand title line and fix punctuation)


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

:smt1099 Yea!! I am with DJ on this one 100%..:smt023 :smt1099


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## 2400 (Feb 4, 2006)

SuckLead said:


> So, of course, the biggest question askers are people from countries who don't allow you to defend yourself in way at all. *What is America's fascination with guns*?


It's not our fascination with guns, it's their fascination with our ability to own guns freely. Our ability to use them for sport, hunting, relaxation, competition and the freedom to carry them for protection bothers them. In a word jealousy, we have guns, they don't.


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## Todd (Jul 3, 2006)

Great post DJ! 

2400's got it, jealously is rearing its ugly head. They want what we've got, and if they can't have it, we shouldn't be allowed to either then.


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

Yeah, that's true. And I hand them a few of our customers as proof. We have two guys who come in once a year. They both live in England and come to the USA once a year for business. They get off the plane and their first stop? Not the hotel, not food... our firing range. I had one UK born customer admit to me he moved to the USA and became a citizen because he wanted a gun. LOL! And all you need to do is put a full auto anything into the hands of a visiting person from an anti-gun country and they want to move here, too, even though they know they probably will never be able to get a gun like that. 

However, it is also slightly because of misinformation. The last time we had a group visiting from abroad, one of their members decided to tell them all about America and guns. Everything he said was way, way wrong and made us all look like crazy, violent spazzes. And he got very angry with me when I corrected the info for their benefit. Apparently he knows better than someone living in the USA because he did research. Uh huh.


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

Oh, btw... DJ... permission to repost?


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

I'd be honored.

Just the late-night ramblings of an overly verbose American firearm enthusiast.


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## crashresidue (Jan 13, 2007)

Cheers,

Don't remember if it was THR or TFL, but the thread was about having weapons because we're compensating for some "sexual" trama/lacking.

Don't remember who posted, but the response read something like "If my penis could kill at 500 yards, I wouldn't need a gun."

I've used that a lot since I read it - it "takes the wind out of their sails" and they end up sputtering and stammering. Both for "foreign or domestic" anti-gunners.

MY Constitution says I can have them - and I don't give a sh*t what your laws allow you - if you think I'm gonna give up mine, think again!!

Gentle winds,
cr


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