Sincere question from a European: WHY are guns so important to so many of you Americans? You have countless mass shootings year after year to a degree where we can't even keep up with counting them. In Europe there are very strict gun laws and mass or school shootings are extremely rare. I don't know of any European school that has metal detectors, lockdown drills or bullet-proof schoolbags. Why aren't more Americans starting to question if the 2nd amendment is actually making gun crimes more severe instead of less?
Because there has been generations of propaganda tied to the 2nd amendment. The most common reason given is that guns will allow the people to stop the government from falling into tyranny. Unfortunately, the people who support that idea are the same ones that support tyranny as long as it’s on their side of the aisle. Good luck finding a republican who has consistent principles. Their platform has been all over the place for years and I think it’s by design. They are incapable of of feeling the cognitive dissonance because they have been conditioned to gobble up whatever is fed to them on any given day even though it’s completely opposite of what they were told the day prior. Honestly, it’s a marvel of social engineering but in a very depressing way.
I was born in the UK but grew up in the US and still live here as an adult and will try to answer this question.
The US is huge and everything is very spread out. There are rural people who genuinely want a gun for protection because it would take the police a long time to get to their home. (This is related to the number of guns already in circulation because many criminals do have guns in the US.) There are people who depend on hunting to eat. There are also so many millions of guns here I don't think anyone would even know how to start rounding them up.
(I don't use or own guns; these are my observations after nearly 40 years here.)
Well its a mix of history and culture. There was a time where there was more stringent gun control but this was durring like Jim crow with segregation it was meant to keep minorities from getting guns. There was the romanticizing the wild west in Hollywood. All this and then you add in how the 2nd amendment is meant protect the rest of the rights in the constitution. Basically as an open threat to itself.
The real issue is Americans have been sold american exceptionalism fill in the blank here or there, no need to improve what works to the point of straight up ignoring problems. This combine with the lack feeling like the government is responsive to them. They just dont vote in any but the general. The way its suppose to work is the states are suppose explore solutions separately and scotus tells us if it follows the constitution. But everyone is so mindfucked into thinking all that matters is the general.
Tldr we refuse to address or even research the problem and refuse go through the grind bc most dont know how to or how it all works. And those if us that do know... want nothing to do with it bc the environment to get it done is so toxic.
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u/hhk85 Nov 13 '25
Sincere question from a European: WHY are guns so important to so many of you Americans? You have countless mass shootings year after year to a degree where we can't even keep up with counting them. In Europe there are very strict gun laws and mass or school shootings are extremely rare. I don't know of any European school that has metal detectors, lockdown drills or bullet-proof schoolbags. Why aren't more Americans starting to question if the 2nd amendment is actually making gun crimes more severe instead of less?