Americans of Internet, why are y’all so obsessed with guns?

First off, firearms are the “great equalizer”, and they are the best form of personal defense. Even an old lady can hold a .38 special and defend herself from a home invader. When danger is only seconds away, the cops are at least minutes away. In the off chance of an extreme situation like this, you would rather be able to defend yourself, than just become another victim, another statistic.

Secondly, it is a big part of our culture. We “won” America with guns. That colony/frontier spirit. Everyone needed guns when first coming here, to defend themselves from natives and other colonists who might think they can do harm with impunity because the new world had less law and order. Then after the creation of the USA, we have the frontier and expansion, where guns were crucial again. That tradition is handed down through families, etc. Americans pride themselves on their markmanship, and have done so for most/all of it’s history. I mean, you can take that all the way back to the Revolutionary war and before.

There is no mistake that the “Right to bear arms” was literally the SECOND amendment put on the bill of rights. Clearly, it was very obvious that it was a crucial right for Americans to have. It wasn’t 10th, it wasn’t 24th. It was 2nd. Right after the Freedom of Speech/Press/Religion, which is the 1st Amendment. They handled that, and immediately added the right to bear arms. Because arms are the only equal way for everyone to defend themselves. It was also meant to be the “ultimate check on a tyrannical government” which was fresh in the minds of Americans, having just recently ousted the British government.

That being said, the obsession goes both ways. You have people who are obsessed Pro-2nd, and you have people who are obsessed anti-guns. Americans aren’t some homogeneous group, there are many differences and nuance to the opinion on firearms.

Like I’m pro-2nd, but I also believe in sensible regulation. There can be a middle ground, but the issue is the slippery slope and two sides that wont budge. They all want more and more of their side, without being able to compromise. One side wants people to buy any gun they like, even grenade launchers and shit lol. Other side thinks the AR-15 is literally the devil and no one should ever have one. Both are unreasonable, and neither side will budge.

Right fine, question to be askin’ pardner.

I am not gun fanatic, all I know is that there are massive guns, big guns, normal guns and bizarre tiny guns. To me, a fascination of this for me would be that there is an antiquity to it. For example, the Yellow-boy or Henry-rifle interests me because it was the gun of choice of outlaw, Billy the Kid.

But if that answer was not addressing the your question, I would generally imagine that it could be seen as tradition to have your own gun. Like for example, a parent buying their kid a hunting rifle. But if you are talking about Joe combat here, he has a stash of guns, I don’t know what that obsession is about. Might stem from the antiquity thing. There is more than likely a connection of self defense and the second amendment, then there is a more complicated question that I would probably never be able to answer.

(I think what I typed made coherence, but I have a short term memory when it comes to that sort of thing.)

About 2 years ago 2 people tried breaking into my home around 10pm at nite. Luckly i was still awake on my porch upstairs. Wife calls police. Took them almost 40 minutes to arrive. They ran off when they heard me cock my shotgun from the porch above them and heard me yell, “you’d better run”. Thats why.

Plus its our right to be able to own them.

It’s not all of America. It’s a huge country, and just as our food, dialect, and geography are vastly different from region to region, so too we have enormous differences in politics, educational attainment, and social norms (all of which affect gun ownership) among all the different states. Visiting another state across the country, my kids saw a man with a sidearm and told me to call 911 immediately. We had literally never seen that anyone except police officers walking around with a gun.

Guns are neat, and I’m not even American