You know what's NOT a good bath toy for a 5 year-old?

[ieoeja]

21. The last two decades of gun culture is a huge factor as well.

I grew up where and when everyone already had firearms. However, things have changed dramatically.

I now know numerous people who are afraid to step into forests without a gun that we wandered unarmed and alone, even camping overnight by ourselves, when we were kids. It began as an excuse for carrying a gun and morphed into a genuine belief.

I was not allowed to touch firearms until I was 10. And not unsupervised until I was 12. My nephew was playing with guns, even pointing it at people, when he was 6. Everyone thought it was cute.

Loaded guns were not allowed in our house nor in most of my friends' homes. Today, most people I know there always have a loaded firearm in the bedroom "just in case".

If a stranger drove up the driveway, you went out to greet them when I was a kid. Today, a lot of those same people grab a firearm and want to know why you're on their property.

A great disconnect is that these same people brag about living in a place where they don't have to lock their doors. These people do not seem to live in fear at all. Bring up firearms, and they suddenly live in a world surrounded by dangerous people.

When I was growing up firearms were just another tool. And just like very few people carry a hammer with them every day, few people carried a gun. You only saw the gun when they were planning to shoot something. Now, many people with whom I grew up will not step out of their house without a firearm.


Over the past couple of decades guns changed from a tool into a fetish or object of worship. That is the "gun culture" which some pro-RKBA types have tried claiming does not exist.