Well that's true. My BA is in American Studies and with that I learned a lot that explains our gun culture. Guns are in our collective consciousness. In the DNA of every second generation American and beyond.
We have a western mythology that views guns as symbolic of many characteristics and ideologies we tend to value in this country- freedom, personal responsibility, protecting one's family, individualism, manifest destiny, strength, independence, ruggedness, the frontier, protecting the weak, avenging the oppressed, overcoming tyranny, etc.
I mean it goes back to the founding of the nation. And goes forward 125 years through the westward expansion.
We are not Canada or Sweden. We have a very different ethos and a different national mythology. Do we have a problem with gun culture? I think we do. But because we aren't like those other nations, because our history is so different, I don't believe we can approach guns the same way as these other nations do.
The divide doesn't narrow by pounding one's opinion into the ears of the other, over and over. That hasn't worked yet and it won't work now. A conversation would be good. But an honest one that doesn't shut down the reality of who we are, like it or not. We need to respect each other's opinions and try to understand where everyone is coming from rather than becoming entrenched and angry.
Ultimately, that approach hasn't worked and won't fix anything.
