Arkansas homeowner shoots at teens egging his car, killing 15 year old girl in the process

[delrem]

25. I think it's more a matter of overall US national attitude.

Respect for guns, for gun ownership - a recognition of the responsibility that automatically attaches to gun ownership - is one thing. It's a sane thing.

But the overall US national attitude doesn't match that. I see vids of jackasses wandering around shopping malls with AK's strapped across their backs just to make a point about what they call their "right to carry". I listen to their speeches about how such actions are patriotic. I see religious leaders making a point of wanting to allow open carry in their churches. I see stupidity mixed with ignorance dominating the popular US gun culture. I see "stand your ground" laws where folk are actually encouraged to fire at will rather than retreat. I see gun shows where insane firepower is both worshipped and sold in an essentially unregulated market. I see maniacs appealing to the US constitution as granting them the right to be in-your-face belligerent about their guns, hyperventilating in exhilaration not only about their right to use their guns against others who they imagine might threaten them, but about their pride in saying so at every opportunity.

I see a culture weaned on a false history of a gun-centric "wild west" where reason is left no room to intervene, to add nuance to a black-and-white good-and-evil nonsensical version of US history. I see a culture that worships war, that lies to itself about its role in war and that has no sense of the distinction between fantasy and reality when it comes to guns, war, and killing.

When it comes to guns and the military the US is fucking well insane.