Why isn't Europe as crazy about guns as US?

[Bird222]

I am just wondering why it seems European countries are not that into guns as the US? What makes us different? Is there something particularly special in our history?

 

[lxskllr]

A large frontier, and violent treasonous revolt. Both drive home the necessity of being armed.

 

[Kelvrick]

I don't think their governments really ever had a problem giving them arms to go to war (with each other).

Otherwise, they do have a history of oppression, revolution, and foreign invasion. After they stopped fighting for a while, they just started conquering and colonizing other lands.

THen they had those two big wars on their soil. Maybe they got tired of it?

 

[shortylickens]

Really?
You couldnt post this in one of the other 20 threads?

 

[OCGuy]

Oh man

 

[KB]

Because our founding fathers enshrined the right to bear arms in the constitution. No European nation has the right so enshrined in their bill of rights. I am still amazed many nations don't even have the freedom of speech, but that's another thread.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I need to be prepared in case they team up and try to steal my shit.

 

[Aldon]

Good question. I have a gun and never used it. I lived in Germany for more than a decade, never had a gun, and would have never used it either. Some problems can be solved without violence, anyway. Maybe if someone has broken into your house, it's reasonable. But thankfully this has never happened before to me.

 

[shortylickens]

Good question. I have a gun and never used it. I lived in Germany for more than a decade, never had a gun, and would have never used it either. Some problems can be solved without violence, anyway. Maybe if someone has broken into your house, it's reasonable. But thankfully this has never happened before to me.

If problems can be solved without guns why do our presidents keep sending in troops?

 

[lxskllr]

If problems can be solved without guns why do our presidents keep sending in troops?

It's good for business.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I am just wondering why it seems European countries are not that into guns as the US? What makes us different? Is there something particularly special in our history?

Yes, about 10,000 different wars have taken place on the fields of Europe. We view guns as something to protect us from trouble, Europe views guns AS the trouble.

 

[bigi]

There are much less nuts over there.

 

[mmntech]

As I understand it, the early American government wanted an armed populace as a check against the power of government. Though realistically, having everyone armed also makes it difficult for a foreign power to invade. The Patriot leaders distrusted standing armies, so instead the defence of the nation would depend on militias. This is outlined in the 2nd amendment, which was drafted two years after the Continental Army demobilized.

Over time, guns have become baked into American culture. Though today, I think a large part of the gun culture stems from the state's inability to deal with lingering problems in society. The amendment has long been controversial among some scholars (according to my brief research), but popular debate didn't kick off until the second half of the 20th century.

I think the roots of the current debate can be traced back to the civil rights movement, growth of urban decay, and the rise of innercity violence in the 1960s. Of course then there were the high profile race riots like Watts in 1965. I think this scared a lot of the white, middle class. Which is what I think prompted a lot of them to arm themselves. Unfortunately I couldn't find statistics prior to 1973. Though whites do own the most guns as a percentage of their total population. It's no surprise that gun ownership peaked in the 1970s, during a very tough political and economic time for the US. Also when innercity violence was starting to kick into high gear.

The anti-gun side tends to miss the boat on tackling the root causes of crime, and simply wants to ban the method. Something that rarely seems to come up in the debate. It gets passing mention but no solutions are ever offered.

 

[shortylickens]

There are much less nuts over there.

OK, clearly you've never left your home state.

Go out and see the world. Not fucking Bermuda either. The real world. See all the dark horrible shit that goes on daily.
You will soon realize that guns dont cause problems. People do. Its always been the people. Since before guns existed.

 

[brianmanahan]

Oh man

dont get me started!

 

[olds]

Guns are dangerous. I have to keep mine locked in a safe. Something seemed fishy when I saw foots prints that looked like butt pads in my carpet and I was reading about drive by shootings.
Since I locked them up, no more butt pad foots prints or drive bys.

 

[cyclohexane]

Because our founding fathers enshrined the right to bear arms in the constitution. No European nation has the right so enshrined in their bill of rights. I am still amazed many nations don't even have the freedom of speech, but that's another thread.

The founding founders enshrined the right to bear a few muskets - to deter British soldiers. They did not enshrine Ak-47s, sniper rifles, and other modern weapons capable of massacring a town full of people.

 

[olds]

The founding founders enshrined the right to bear a few muskets - to deter British soldiers. They did not enshrine Ak-47s, sniper rifles, and other modern weapons capable of massacring a town full of people.

Dropped on your head as a child?

 

[cyclohexane]

Dropped on your head as a child?

Anything wrong with what I wrote, or are you just too dumb to argue with logic?

 

[shortylickens]

Anything wrong with what I wrote, or are you just too dumb to argue with logic?

Your "logic" has already been shot down many times. This argument started back in the 60's and has been refuted many times.
Theres whole books on what the founding fathers wanted. Read one of them.

 

[Aldon]

Gun lobbyists and the media are both interconnected and are partly to blame. Plus, you'll never see a report about a C.E.O of XYZ outsourcing jobs into India and killing hundreds, no, thousands of people due to polluted drinking water. You'll see the black man with the gun in his hand. Oh, and have you ever seen a news report about a white man with a gun? No, because then they're psychopaths, not criminals!

Ask yourself: Is the media promoting violence committed by certain ethnic groups or minorities there? From personal experience and more than a decade in Europe, I haven't seen such reports. Huh, something must be wrong with Europe.

 

[lxskllr]

The founding founders enshrined the right to bear a few muskets - to deter British soldiers. They did not enshrine Ak-47s, sniper rifles, and other modern weapons capable of massacring a town full of people.

It was enshrined for state of the art weaponry of the time. It wasn't limited to spears, slingshots, or anything else that was less than the best. When the (potential)oppressor's weapons get better, the citizen's weapons need to improve also.

 

[Pocatello]

A large frontier, and violent treasonous revolt. Both drive home the necessity of being armed.

In America, there is no such thing as a king's forest, king's deer, king's wild boar, etc. You don't have to be royalty or related to royalty to hunt. Kings don't want their subjects to kill wild games, or use guns against them. That's just a start. In America, we're citizens not subjects to any king.

 

[pontifex]

The founding founders enshrined the right to bear a few muskets - to deter British soldiers. They did not enshrine Ak-47s, sniper rifles, and other modern weapons capable of massacring a town full of people.

where does it say muskets in the constitution?
s by that logic, the right to free speech only applies to spoken word and paper, not TV, not radio, not computers, etc?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

In America, there is no such thing as a king's forest, king's deer, king's wild boar, etc. You don't have to be royalty or related to royalty to hunt. Kings don't want their subjects to kill wild games, or use guns against them. That's just a start. In America, we're citizens not subjects to any king.

I don't know who Mr. King is, but if he doesn't want me on his property, well, so be it.

In America, we are subjects of people who own the stuff. We just haven't realized it yet.