I don't understand Americans obsession with hoarding guns and ammo. I'm not judging, I just don't understand.
Many people here in New Zealand have their firearms licence but only own a few guns (2-4) and usually only use them for hunting or sometimes on the farm. Hand guns are relatively rare. Even the preppers I know here don't stockpile guns and ammo.
I often don't understand America's obsession with guns myself, even though I collect them and carry on a daily basis. I was actually brought up in an anti-gun household.
Part of our gun culture stems--I believe--from our history of settlers expanding westward ("Manifest Destiny"), and killing off the indiginous people who--quite rightly--objected to genocide.
In this country, police are often minutes away when seconds count, and a gun gives an 80 year old lady parity with criminals intent on rape and/or murder.
Even though I collect guns (including some that are controversial, like my AR-15), I sometimes wonder if we haven't gotten overly permissive when it comes to them.
Britain had a total of 65 gun deaths (including suicides in the police and military) for all of 2017, and that country has almost 70 million people.
In my country of about 310 million people, we lost almost as many people in one mass shooting in Las Vegas (56 victims).
Yet even though Britain seems like they've accomplished something, criminals simply switched their tactics. A favorite way to carjack in London is to run up to an unsuspecting motorist . . . and throw concentrated acid into the person's face to incapacitate them so that the car can be stolen.
Our gun culture played a part in preventing us from being invaded by the Japanese in WWII. When Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was asked why his forces didn't press their advantage after Pearl Harbor and invade California, he said: "If we invade the American mainland, there will be a rifle behind every blade of grass." There are historians who doubt that he actually said this (James Cagney never said "Take that, you dirty rat!", Carl Sagan never said "Billions and billions", and William Shatner never said "Beam me up, Scotty" in Star Trek), but the concern was definitely there.
There is also the belief that our gun culture keeps our government from oppressing us. We are--after all--descended from rebels who violently took over our country from an oppessive foreign government who had no interest in our well-being, and guns are a part of that tradition.
I switched from being very anti-gun to being very pro-gun during my stint as a relief worker after Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed Homestead and Florida City in 1992 (I was a paramedic).
I saw rape victims that were as young as 7 and 8 years old. Organized gangs of thugs routinely looted and pillaged like hoards of locusts or army ants . . . intent on taking anything that they wanted.
We saw similar events when Katrina hit New Orleans, and we're seeing a lot of similar nonsense now during this time of civil unrest, and police have stopped responding to certian areas.
Speaking only for myself, my gun isn't really to protect my property. If I shoot someone for trying to steal my $500.00 television, I'll pay maybe $70,000.00 in attorney fees to keep out of prison. My gun is for people like Ted Bundy (murdered over 30 women), for rabid animals, for pit bull attacks, and many other types of emergencies that justify a gun. Home invasions by drug addicts are common in the U.S..
I don't know if any of this answers your questions, but I hope I shed a little light on our gun culture.
. Like they can tell you are smiling wearing a face mask. Ha ha
. Sorry for hijacking the conversation.
