Why do so many Americans think that being American means owning a gun or guns?

[cynatnite]

Can anyone explain the psychology behind this because I don't understand it. They point up a piece of paper and say "It says right there I can have a gun" and somehow they think it makes them special. They do cling to their guns as if someone's going to yank it out of their hands.

I've been around guns my entire life, but my citizenship is NOT defined by my ability to own a gun. I don't understand those that do define it in such a way.

on edit: This is not a thing against gun owners. This is about a mentality that I have seen with the RW and I don't understand it.

[HockeyMom]

1. Because it goes back to the Wild West?

Other countries, just as "free" as ours, don't have this mentality.

[phantom power]

6. +1 -- our "frontier phase" occupies a large fraction of our history, and ended fairly recently.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. You mean the MYTH of the wild west

but correct.

[Kennah]

2. Being American ...

... means the RIGHT to own guns--among other things.

[cynatnite]

5. Why?

That's what I want to know. Why does owning a weapon that kills make you an American?

You can say it's about the RIGHT...it's the same thing. Why does it make you stand apart than any other human being on this Earth?

[Kennah]

25. Not true

I daresay that a great many women who fought for the right to have an abortion were not of child bearing years. It's been a while since I sat in biology class, but I believe that no man who supports a woman's right to choose is possessed of the ability to have an abortion, so it's clearly about the right, not the abortion.

Not every politician who supports the rights of gunowners owns a gun.

[cynatnite]

39. Good point...

I still want to know why the RIGHT to own a gun makes one American? I said that in my OP.

I've been around guns my entire life, but my citizenship is NOT defined by my ability to own a gun. I don't understand those that do define it in such a way.

I should have worded the title like this in the first place, but the question remains.

[Kennah]

45. The right does not make one an American ...

... but the right is almost uniquely American.

[stanlite]

44. Certainly, but...

it's just as valid to say the being an American means I'm free of any religion being shoved down my throat and it means other things.

Emphasis on the armed fire arm part is an interesting question at this point of our nation's history. It's not needed for turning back the King of England, or the French, or indigneous peoples. Now the only logical reason is the emphasis is due to fear of crime or nameless fear. IMO anyway.

Whatever focus, I really think it is fear.

[Vickers]

3. I'm a gun owner, but it has nothing to do with "being American" (whatever that means). n/t

[cynatnite]

7. I'm a gun owner to...my Dad gave me his before he died...

I'm just trying to figure why so many people believe that this right means they're an American.

[emulatorloo]

Palin followers may believe that. But they are a minority, don't you think?

(I am not saying all Palin followers beleive it either, but obviously she panders to those who do beleive that)

[WinkyDink]

34. It does; you wouldn't be a "gun-owner" in half or more of Europe.

[Vickers]

46. Most of my family in Europe (Germany, Hungary and England) have firearms.

Not as many as me, but hey.

:)

I've even gone hunting over there, but it's a little too structured for my tastes.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Because most Americans have very small minds.

And I say that as a gun owner. Which I don't own because I think it makes me American, or is a necessity of an American - I have them because I used to hunt, and I enjoy target shooting.

But being in a gun family, and having spent a lot of time around gun people, there are a SHITLOAD of ignorant doofuses who somehow seem to think that being American equates with owning a gun equates with being a Christian (even though most of these people I encountered only go to church for weddings and funerals).

[emulatorloo]

8. I am not sure that many people equate gun ownership with being American

Sure some do, but I doubt that the majority of gun owners have that mentality.

[cynatnite]

13. I've heard it said so by a lot of RWer's...

Just trying to figure it out.

[backwoodsbob]

19. I own LOTS of guns...8 at the moment

I've never thought owning a gun makes me an American :shrug:

[cynatnite]

32. Are you a RWer?

I'm trying to get at the mentality of why some identify themselves as American by this right. It's came from mostly RWer's. As I said...this isn't about gun rights. I've been around guns all my life, I'm a vet, and I currently own a gun. I just don't use my right to own one as being uniquely American.

I'm not saying you do. There are plenty who do and that's what I'm trying to figure out.

[backwoodsbob]

40. why would haveing a gun make me a rw'er?

that doesn't make sense

[cynatnite]

41. Oh, Geez...

Come on. That is not what I said and you damn well know it. I made a point primarily about RWer's who are rabid about owning guns. That's it.

I did not say you are a RWer or that people who own guns are RWer's. NO WHERE DID I SAY THAT and anyone with a working brain stem knows it.

[hollowdweller]

50. Maybe I can help?

Gun owner here and I never thought about the american=gun owner thing.

But here's why I think:

The GOP is the party of the rich. Really if you look at the GOP they really don't have much to offer middle class voters.

One thing very popular among working people, especially rural people is guns.

So the GOP wraps patriotisim, gun ownership together to try to draw some of these people since the Dems have the reputation of wanting to deprive law abiding citizens of their guns. If you look at 2006 to now I think that reputation is undeserved but if they can keep it going, especially if the dems propose some gun control and the republican controlled house shoots it down then the GOP can possibly take the senate in 2012 saying they need it to protect gun rights.

It's basically all about keeping the GOP in power.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

56. good answer.

[RegieRocker]

47. Possibly the right to bear arms is your answer.

Isn't it un american to vote?

[frazzled]

9. Because they're paranoid?

Aside from hunters or sportsmen, whose gun ownership I can understand, nearly all the arguments I see for gun ownership are based on some kind of fear that someone is going to attack them. Like at church or something. Where does this delusional fear come from?

I've lived in some of this country's largest cities, including New York. I live in the dead urban center of the country's 3rd largest city right now. And I have never owned a gun, touched a gun, nor do I ever want to. I also don't feel unsafe. Even if I did, it wouldn't occur to me that a gun would be the remedy for that feeling.

[William769]

20. Just because half the Country (and I'm being liberal here).

Is out to get me, doesn't mean I'm paranoid.

ON EDIT: fixed my train of thought.

[Bonhomme Richard]

31. +1 n/t

[hollowdweller]

51. Funny you say that

We have concealed carry in my state and open carry is legal too.

I live in a rural area and a lot of my neighbors are always after me to get a concealed permit and a lot of my neighbors carry openly here on the hollow where I live.

I have LOTS of pistols and I'm always out in my yard shooting them for fun and my neighbors will come by and shoot the breeze and when they ask me why I don't get a concealed permit I always tell them because I never really feel unsafe.

Now a LOT of times I carry a knife but I live on a farm and use a knife a LOT. I DO go backpacking a lot and a lot of times I'll bring a pistol with me when I'm 8 or 10 miles from the nearest road, but honestly in 25 years of doing that I've never had the need to use one.

I think a lot of the in your face sort of gun stuff we are seeing is sort of a result of the GOP and NRA telling everybody that their gun rights are in danger from the dems, despite the fact we've seen nothing but a LOOSENING of the laws.

[elocs]

10. We have people who are defined by gun ownership, some right here at DU,

who resent that the Second Amendment is #2 rather than being the First Amendment.

[William769]

21. Wow!

Just wow!

[Ezlivin]

11. Some believe that gun ownership is the key distinction between us and other countries

Also many of them equate guns with power and power with America.

[sharesunited]

27. It IS a key distinction. and not a flattering one.

[Tejas]

29. Britain and Mexico come to mind.

Both have strict gun control.


Interesting article here, I didn't realize it's actually that bad in Britain.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html


As far as Mexico is concerned, well......

[ananda]

12. One word: fear.

nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. It is a strange psychology and it is not limited to the RW

just go down to the Gungeon.

It has to do with the belief that this is what makes the US special... and the frontier experience... which is not that unique to the US either... (Australia and Canada had such an experience too, btw)

But it is a mentality encouraged by the jumped the shark a long time ago, NRA.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HockeyMom]

16. Combat/Wounded Veterans versus NonCombat/Civilians

I have seen a big divide here too. I knew many combat and wounded Nam Vets. The majority of them came back very anti war and anti gun.

I have seen the same among WW2 Vets, specifically my own family. My Dad was a WW2 Vet and saw combat in Africa. He never owned a gun and was very much anti gun.

My father-in-law also saw combat and was shot in the head (metal plate). He also liberated Buchenwald and had nightmares for the rest of his life reliving his war experience. He didn't own any guns. Yet, his son, my husband, was very much pro gun, going back to HS when he was on the gun squad. He enlisted at 17 during Nam but never saw combat. He has owned guns his entire life, is a Repuke, and a life member of the NRA. I do know his Dad never really talked to him about his war experiences. He did, however, talk to ME about them. I don't know, maybe that was his way of unloading? He knew I might be more sympathetic than his own son?

Anyway, this has been just my own limited experience with Veterans I have known.

[madinmaryland]

17. Go over to the Gungeon and you will see the same mentality. nt

[TheKentuckian]

18. Whats that based on? I think the entire Bill of Rights is a part of what makes us Americans.

[cynatnite]

22. It seems that many define their citizenship by their right to own guns...

It's not their freedom of speech, religion, or any of the other amendments. It seems like too many people skip the first one altogether and focus primarily on the 2nd.

It's mostly the RW that goes on and on about owning guns. I'm trying to figure out the mentality behind this thinking.

[backwoodsbob]

26. answer me

I own 8 guns at the moment and I don't think in any way that defines my citizenship

[cynatnite]

35. See post 32 and quit being so damn demanding. I answer when I get around to it. n/t

[Tejas]

24. No other country on Earth has a BOR such as us.

I'm thankful I live in this country.

[mrcheerful]

28. Good marketing by the NRA, since the 80's they have promoted stories about the brave gun owner

driving off the big bad criminal at the same time they convinced gun owners that self protection with a gun was safer then it was. Stories about guns being taken away and stories about family members being killed by mistake were slowly taken out of public view. Gun owners won't admit that they are less likely to pull the trigger then a criminal, even though it is the truth.

Police also hesitate before opening fire, that hesitation is deadly because it gives someone an opportunity to get the gun away. Then ego's enter into the whole mess, I'm a bad ass I won't hesitate, many think that because they practice that changes things, reality is you never know what type of criminal your dealing with, you get one more worried about getting locked up again then he is of dying and your pulling a gun could make things worse on you.

[RegieRocker]

23. Why isn't this in the guns board?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

59. good question.

[backwoodsbob]

30. so why won't you answer me

I own at the moment 8 guns.I don't think owning a gun makes me American and don't think my gun makes me a citizen.

where do I fit in?

[cynatnite]

33. I just answered you...I wasn't on this site at the time you posted...

Sorry, I just can't answer as soon as someone posts.

[valerief]

36. The gun is a phallic symbol. Virility. nt

[Tejas]

48. Are you saying female gunowners need a "phallic symbol"?

WTF were you thinking when you posted that?

[Cleita]

37. Movie Westerns?

The irony is my dad landed in Arizona circa 1910 when Arizona was still a territory. He went to work in the Copper mines. He fought in WWI so I assume he learned to use a gun then, but we never had guns in our house. There was no hunting, only fishing. He never mentioned that guns were used much in the mining town he lived in. He talked a lot about how life was there, about buying food from the chuck wagon, living in a boarding house and using horses and mules for transportation, but never did he mention shootouts or guns or even much lawlessness like you see in the movies.

However, wind up to 1968, when I went on my first trip to Alaska. We departed from Seattle to fly up there. Part of the overhead luggage that some of the passengers put up over their seats were guns and rifles, in gun cases of course, not out in the open. Imagine doing that today? So guns were kind of a necessity up in the last frontier, but no one made a big swaggering show of them. It was just some equipment that people had in their cars in the city or carried with them when they were out in the woods.

I don't know where this new gun culture came from, but I'm suspicious it has been made up of whole cloth by people much younger than me who have seen too many Westerns.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. And your gut is right on it

[ClassWarrior]

43. (see also: "Bowling for Columbine")

NGU.

[X_Digger]

49. I don't think your premise is sound.

Being an american citizen doesn't mean owning a gun, no.

Is someone saying that those who don't own guns are less than citizens?

[Overseas]

52. The NRA is a very powerful organization and has been for decades.

Its PR leadership is far more unyielding than its members,

Lots of its members are willing to listen to law enforcement officials who ask for more gun control, but its leadership has insisted that each regulation is a slippery slope to crush the second amendment.

I wish the membership could convince the leadership otherwise.

[RagAss]

53. Most Americans are Afraid and Stupid.

[woo me with science]

54. I don't see that at all.

I think it's natural, when people feel a right is being challenged, to want to defend it. But I see just as many people concerned about losing other freedoms from the Bill of Rights, too. Look at the whole TSA uproar, and the arguments recently about violent metaphor, or Islamic cartoons, or politically correct language.

[DailyGrind51]

55. It is part of our culturtal insecurity and inferiority that we mask with protestations about

"exceptionalism".

[whistler162]

57. The same psychology that makes people want to know

"Why do so many Americans think that being American means owning a gun or guns?"

They own guns get over yourself!

[Shagbark Hickory]

58. Because fox news personalities say that it is.

simple as that.

[fascisthunter]

60. it's a hobby

and there is too much money invested in it. It's why millions have been used to lobby congress. Guns are not necessary in this democracy, but damn it, you wouldn't know that by how feigned folks are regarding any regulations on buying them.