Published on May 6, 2005 By drmiler In Politics

Stop trying to destroy the gun culture. There are more than 250 million guns in public circulation in the U.S. They cannot be wished away. Even if the U.S. government banned gun ownership and stopped all gun manufacturing and importation, it would still need to confiscate all those weapons. Doing so would require wholesale violations of Fourth Amendment rights. The probability of getting rid of guns in America, therefore, is practically zero.


Then there are the people who own all those guns. The gun culture is a multilayered, multifaceted phenomenon made up of diverse, complex subcultures. Contrary to popular stereotypes, members of the gun culture are not all potential terrorists, unemployed skinheads hanging out at gun shows, or menacing warrior wannabes in camouflage gear. Not every gun owner is a member of the National Rifle Association; in fact, some gun owners dislike the NRA. Gun owners come in all colors and stripes: They are police officers, soldiers, farmers and ranchers, doctors and lawyers, hunters, sport shooters, gun collectors, feminists, gay activists, black civil rights leaders. Most of the shooters I know are normal members of their local communities. They have regular jobs; they go to neighborhood picnics and PTA meetings; they have children and grandchildren. They interact with their co-workers, bosses, employees, neighbors, friends, and families in socially positive ways.


Despite their differences in background and lifestyle, all these individuals have thoroughly integrated guns into their lives. Gun control supporters need to recognize that America’s gun culture has deep roots in American history and that pro-gun ideology has deep roots in America’s political culture. Even if the NRA were to magically disappear tomorrow, the gun culture would remain. The people who compose it are simply not interested in giving up their arms.


Guns and the gun culture are so intertwined with American culture that many Americans perceive guns as utterly, unremarkably normal. Most gun owners have unexciting, if not entirely banal, experiences with guns all the time. Claiming that gun owners are mentally ill or that the gun culture is a “cult” (as the historian Garry Wills has) will not change the fact that most gun owners are ordinary people.


The left should take this message to heart! The rest of the article is here:

Link


Comments (Page 2)
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on May 06, 2005
I would have thought "uranus".


Just my head sometimes.
on May 06, 2005
I would have thought "uranus".


Just my head sometimes.


BWHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
on May 06, 2005
why I can not own any other type of firearm short of a grenade launcher.


that's exactly why this whole thing falls apart. i do see why i should be able to have my own m-79. yall just wanna play with those girly guns.
on May 06, 2005
that's exactly why this whole thing falls apart. i do see why i should be able to have my own m-79. yall just wanna play with those girly guns.


Nope, we're just good enough so that we don't need one.
"one shot, one kill".
on May 07, 2005
"one shot, one kill".


it aint a real armament unless ya can also use it to bloop flash-bangs and gas shells
on May 07, 2005
t aint a real armament unless ya can also use it to bloop flash-bangs and gas shells


That stuff's for sissies who can't shoot straight.
on May 07, 2005
"one shot, one kill".


it aint a real armament unless ya can also use it to bloop flash-bangs and gas shells


The only thing I'll grant you is they are a blast to use! But masonm is right, they're for people that can't shoot straight. Of course that's just my opinion.
on May 07, 2005
But it didnt answer my original question guy. You just clouded the air with right wing rhetoric. WHICH IS WHAT THE NRA DOES!


Yes I did, you just did not like the answer. Read it again. Creeping incrementalism.
on May 07, 2005
Oh come on now! You know perfectly well that no criminal is going to use a gun to commit a crime if it's illegal for him to have it.


ROFL! Thanks for the laugh!

That one Guy, look to England!
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