Is Firearms Ownership in the US becoming a Cult?

[Ghostpanther]

Not sure about a religious attachment, but I am almost sure that gun freaks in America put sexual meaning to guns. It's almost like a fetish for some.

There are freaks with a lot of things. Some people will fight you if you park next to their car and open your door and ding their's. The great majority of people would not.

[Kuntantee]

There are freaks with a lot of things. Some people will fight you if you park next to their car and open your door and ding their's. The great majority of people would not.

Yeah, but not all will shoot a class full of kids because they have easy access to assault rifles.

[Ghostpanther]

Yeah, but not all will shoot a class full of kids because they have easy access to assault rifles.

But some freaks will mow down a bunch of people using trucks or vans. :P

[Dystemper]

From my experience, working in law enforcement for almost 10 years... if you're not a cop and own a gun, you're usually a criminal or a really insecure fat white dude.

Then you do not work in LEO. Nice trolling

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Every time the gun discussion comes up here (the Netherlands) we view it as a cult, baffled by Americans and their "toys".

We are baffled by Europeans willing to be ruled and how many times your countries have been taken over by tyrants, dictators and madman who killed over 100 million people .

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I think you are just seeing the worst of it here on mmo champ. Out of all the gun owners I know only one keeps one near their bed. I'm fairly confident I can say it's the minority the open/conceal carries. or bothers with keeping a loaded gun near them at all times.

No ta minority. I carry every day. My wife and I both have weapons by the bed ( we have no kids, never have any kids over ) and i have a Weapon available in every room of the house plus I carry at home. Why? Because I live way out in the boonies and Home invasions here are prevalent because criminals know that sheriff deputy response time out here is at least 35-45 minutes . Every single person I know who owns guns out here has one close by and if they have kids they have them in a quick response safe. But we also teach kids out here safe and proper gun handling at a very early age. You almost never hear of a child out here that will mishandle a gun.

[Mormolyce]

For some people it definitely is.

I feel a little bad for the millions of perfectly sane non-zealous gun owners who just like guns. They get given a really bad name by the fruitcakes.

[Priestiality]

It's just small-dicked losers overcompensating tbh.

[oxymoronic]

From my experience, working in law enforcement for almost 10 years... if you're not a cop and own a gun, you're usually a criminal or a really insecure fat white dude.

lmao being the fat old security guard at walgreens is not law enforcement. also why the racist comment? where did you serve that had so many fat white "DUDES"?

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It's just small-dicked losers overcompensating tbh.

just like nice cars and big trucks right! yeah, them fuckers with small dicks yeah! so what do you do to compensate for your obviously small penis?

[Priestiality]

just like nice cars and big trucks right! yeah, them fuckers with small dicks yeah! so what do you do to compensate for your obviously small penis?

Get flamed on message boards, mostly.

[oxymoronic]

I think you are just seeing the worst of it here on mmo champ. Out of all the gun owners I know only one keeps one near their bed. I'm fairly confident I can say it's the minority the open/conceal carries. or bothers with keeping a loaded gun near them at all times.

then those people have no clue what the fuck a gun is for, at least in an urban environment. you should really check their ass.

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Get flamed on message boards, mostly.

"flame on mmochamp"

gotcha, me too! lets compare bro!

[Ghostpanther]

Oh boy. Any time someone brings up anything about guns, NRA and 2nd amendment fellows come in droves. They may not care about anything to help others or programs to help their fellow man, but they'll flock together quite quickly as soon as guns are involved.

Because the right under the Constitution is being attacked. The NRA is a advocate for the Constitutional right to keep and bare arms. Same as the AARP fights for retirees.

Thomas Jefferson said. " Freedoms requires constant vigilance."

[Rumzlug]

Wow we got a smart guy. Try again

Two years as a government contractor Offuit Air Force Base Nebraska, armed security, also 2 years armed security Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant Nebraska

Good for you. You might of gone through training and done the Mozambique Drill. No one ever told you to use this in a real combat situation, and if they did you should of had better instructors. The drill is for control, accuracy, and speed among other things.

And really 10 feet away and the spread on your shotgun would be too much? are you insane? At about 10' a 00shot has about 2" of spread. At 20' you are going to get about 15-20" of spread.

its funny he mentions you watching movies, in the same post he mentions bullets going through walls, like you are gonna be john wicking around the house in circles fucking up 30 dudes.

LOL are you really going to try and deny that a 5.56 round will not penetrate a standard interior wall? or even an insulated wall? http://how-i-did-it.org/drywall/results.html. Plenty of other people out there testing it. My local range actually set up a test last summer so they could sell some specific "Home Defense" 5.56 ammo.

Clearly neither of you actually know anything about how firearms work. Which if you really are owners is very scary and highlights one of the problems we have.

[a1derful1]

Not meaning to single you out, I'm just catching up on the night's posts and yours is the first good example of these factors that I've noticed. This doesn't strike you as perhaps a bit over the top? You carry a knife all the time, even at home. You have multiple hidden guns around the house as Plan A. You have multiple large bladed weapons as Plan B. What has generated this level of unease in your life that makes you think you need all that?

I'm a sword collector, so I have blades all over the house including movie replicas and quality cutting swords. I collect them just as someone would collect baseball cards. Their main purpose is for display, cutting, and swordplay exercises. I call some of them "Plan B", if I am unable to reach a gun, should the need arise. If you swing a stainless steel sword at something, you're likely to injure yourself when it breaks, because they make terrible blades. So...swords aren't over the top.

I've carried a knife on me all my life, even as a kid, as they were commonly used while living on a farm. I had only been carrying a small ram horn gripped chisel tip CRKT Graham Razel folding knife for the past few years, because knives are tools that can be used in daily life. Since Texas knife law changes have gone into effect in September, I now carry a much bigger Angel Sword fixed blade knife on my hip, along with the folding knife, because I can and it's now legal. So....not over the top.

My guns are hidden for ease of access, wherever my wife and I are at in the house, and I learned that growing up with my dad, who lived in a very secluded area, and people did try to break in, due to the fact it was secluded. He slept with a 45 under his pillow and a 9mm in his headboard cabinet, which did lead to him holding a couple thugs at gunpoint until the cops finally found the house. I also have pulled a shotgun on someone that was breaking into my car, while I was going to college, and had them face down in the dirt until the cops arrived. When people do break in, the first thing they look for is a safe or gun cabinet, so you hide them somewhere a thug won't ever look, like in a book, especially if it has a snap keeping it shut, as they rifle through your belongings. Not over the top to me...maybe to others...because I'd rather keep them hidden separately in unlikely places, rather than all together and easy to find.

I also have a security system independent of outside power or phone connections, transmitting over a data signal, with sensors on every window, motion sensors, motion lighting, smoke detectors/fire alarm, a couple cameras, a doorbell camera, deadbolt door locks that require keys on either side, and three dogs. My neighbors also have outdoor cameras that cover my front yard and door. When my alarm has gone off, due to thunder, the cops show up within a couple minutes, at the most. It's gone off before, when it was just my wife and daughter at home, and the police and fire department were in our driveway before she even got off the phone with the security company. We take each department fruit baskets after any false alarm to say thank you for the fast response and to get our daughter accustomed to interacting with them, so she learns to trust them, should something happen. I'm not really worried about a damn thing, but I am prepared for whatever could happen. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, which is certainly not over the top, and everything above is legal.

[Ghostpanther]

LOL are you really going to try and deny that a 5.56 round will not penetrate a standard interior wall? or even an insulated wall? http://how-i-did-it.org/drywall/results.html. Plenty of other people out there testing it. My local range actually set up a test last summer so they could sell some specific "Home Defense" 5.56 ammo.

Clearly neither of you actually know anything about how firearms work. Which if you really are owners is very scary and highlights one of the problems we have.

True. A lot of calibers will. Which is why awareness of your surroundings is very important. You would not want to shoot toward a intruder in which behind him is say, your daughter's bedroom. But if you feel your life is in immediate danger, you have to try to stop the intruder and if he is armed with a firearm also, you have to act fast and preferably get the first shot off. Or you could be dead and your daughter raped and killed. Firearms do have their potential deadly results one does not want.

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I'm a sword collector, so I have blades all over the house including movie replicas and quality cutting swords. I collect them just as someone would collect baseball cards. Their main purpose is for display, cutting, and swordplay exercises. I call some of them "Plan B", if I am unable to reach a gun, should the need arise. If you swing a stainless steel sword at something, you're likely to injure yourself when it breaks, because they make terrible blades. So...swords aren't over the top.

I've carried a knife on me all my life, even as a kid, as they were commonly used while living on a farm. I had only been carrying a small ram horn gripped chisel tip CRKT Graham Razel folding knife for the past few years, because knives are tools that can be used in daily life. Since Texas knife law changes have gone into effect in September, I now carry a much bigger Angel Sword fixed blade knife on my hip, along with the folding knife, because I can and it's now legal. So....not over the top.

My guns are hidden for ease of access, wherever my wife and I are at in the house, and I learned that growing up with my dad, who lived in a very secluded area, and people did try to break in, due to the fact it was secluded. He slept with a 45 under his pillow and a 9mm in his headboard cabinet, which did lead to him holding a couple thugs at gunpoint until the cops finally found the house. I also have pulled a shotgun on someone that was breaking into my car, while I was going to college, and had them face down in the dirt until the cops arrived. When people do break in, the first thing they look for is a safe or gun cabinet, so you hide them somewhere a thug won't ever look, like in a book, especially if it has a snap keeping it shut, as they rifle through your belongings. Not over the top to me...maybe to others...because I'd rather keep them hidden separately in unlikely places, rather than all together and easy to find.

I also have a security system independent of outside power or phone connections, transmitting over a data signal, with sensors on every window, motion sensors, motion lighting, smoke detectors/fire alarm, a couple cameras, a doorbell camera, deadbolt door locks that require keys on either side, and three dogs. My neighbors also have outdoor cameras that cover my front yard and door. When my alarm has gone off, due to thunder, the cops show up within a couple minutes, at the most. It's gone off before, when it was just my wife and daughter at home, and the police and fire department were in our driveway before she even got off the phone with the security company. We take each department fruit baskets after any false alarm to say thank you for the fast response and to get our daughter accustomed to interacting with them, so she learns to trust them, should something happen. I'm not really worried about a damn thing, but I am prepared for whatever could happen. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, which is certainly not over the top, and everything above is legal.

This is great. You are doing all the right things. Nice to see a logical post like this.

[Rumzlug]

. GUN CONTROL is a MYTH.

Really? When was the last time you saw someone rob a store or shoot up a bunch of people with a fully automatic pistol or rifle?

The North Hollywood shootout would be my first choice but after that? Back in the late 1930's when they were regulated. Obviously that form of "Gun Control" is a myth and didn't work to drastically lower the amount of deaths caused by the certain types of firearms the act regulated.

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Because the right under the Constitution is being attacked. The NRA is a advocate for the Constitutional right to keep and bare arms. Same as the AARP fights for retirees.

Thomas Jefferson said. " Freedoms requires constant vigilance."

But its not being attacked. Sure there are a few crazy people out there that say they want to ban all guns. That is not a reality or reasonable response, or the view held by the majority.

I saw you made a post about people running over others with cars. Trying to draw in the similarity on how we should ban those too in order to stop that and how ridiculous that would be. The difference is we have enacted hundreds of things to make cars safer and to reduce this risk. You will never prevent crazy people from doing crazy things but you can obviously limit the danger and reduce the amount of deaths.

The argument that is always made next is that limiting the availability of firearms themselves is an attack on the 2nd. Which is true, but we have already as a society agreed to put limitations on that amendment. It is also always funny to see that most of the people against putting any restrictions on their "freedoms" have no problem giving up those same freedoms to the government as long as its in the name of catching terrorists.

Almost everyone can agree that background checks should be better, yet we can't seem to get that done. I don't personally see a problem with creating an electronic database. People are so freaked out about it but they ignore the fact all that info already exists it just hasn't been digitized. There are so many other things we can do to limit the gun problem but we seem unwilling or unable to do so. Which means we must come to the realization that (to borrow from the OP) our "cult-like" obsession with guns comes at the cost of at least some of the deaths caused by them. Is that a price we are willing to agree to?

[spdr]

That age extends back to the founding of the nation. We have always limited freedoms in the name of safety. Hell, we limit the 2nd amendment for those very reasons. Hence the fact that you can't own rocket launchers.

Yes you can. You can own the launcher but good luck getting the ordinance.

[Orange Joe]

then those people have no clue what the fuck a gun is for, at least in an urban environment. you should really check their ass.

These people don't know guns are for hunting? You expect them to go throw spears at deer or something?

[Deleted]

What is your solution to a home break-in?

Security system
Dog
Blunt weapons

31 years no break in, 64 years for my mum. Incidentally house invasion homicides in the UK is ridiculously rare and we aren't all gunned up for WWIII

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But some freaks will mow down a bunch of people using trucks or vans. :P

You're aware that happened in the USA recently? So not only do you have mass shootings but freaks using vehicles as weapons congratulations, you win!

[Torgent]

Can't get past the ad hominems huh

Keep plugging your ears and screaming at the wall. He brings up valid arguments, you say "I'm not reading that" because it goes counter to your fragile beliefs. Never change tony. I used to believe that you played a character on these forums. But either you are the greatest actor and never break or you're actually this way. If the latter, I feel truly sorry for your real life.

[Theinquisition]

Keep plugging your ears and screaming at the wall. He brings up valid arguments, you say "I'm not reading that" because it goes counter to your fragile beliefs. Never change tony. I used to believe that you played a character on these forums. But either you are the greatest actor and never break or you're actually this way. If the latter, I feel truly sorry for your real life.

Thanks torgent, coming from you that means a lot.

[ArguesWithStrangers]

While I don't entirely disagree with you, that doesn't account for the level of fear that needs a person to constantly carry (possibly with a backup) or to have multiple guns hidden around the house, even when the statistics I can find seem to show that having a gun in the house brings increased risks including escalation of a confrontation, deadlier attempts if suicide is attempted, and some number of accidental shootings -- and yet the FBI statistics seem to show that the feared event (assault during a break in) is unlikely to happen (break ins tend to be when the owner isn't home and left a path for entry) or unlikely to happen as imagined (in home assaults are more likely to be by someone you know).

I think you're overthinking things. I know lots of people that carry, and I have a CCW but don't use it often because I live on a military base and I don't want to get nabbed at the gate for forgetting to take it off. I digress though. Most people who carry don't do so out of some persistant fear. They do so because they like having guns around in general, and would rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it. It's really not much more complicated than that.