What are Americans so afraid of?

[Skidmore]

When all the stats for gun ownership are given and all the rationales for ownership are given, I'm still left with that question. Why do some of us feel that we need to be armed to the eyeballs? What do we fear in this culture?

I keep going back to the neocon mantra of "'They' hate our way of life'" as a justification to take up arms against any one perceived as a threat. What is our way of life that is so threatened? On an international level, Islamic nations have been elevated to the role of "the hated Other" after the USSR collapsed. The USSR was a threat to "our way of life." We developed missile programs and all sorts of weaponry to stave off that threat of a godless economic state. Funny how we replaced that enemy with theocratic nations. But this still doesn't nail down this fearful need for security domestically.

If only half of us own guns, it says that lots of us trust our system to be responsive in a time of true need or we just don't perceive everyone out there as a potential threat. Now I realize that we have people who may own hunting rifles, but that doesn't account for those who seem to not be able to even walk the street without a gun on their persons.

Is it tribalism at its worst? The "Other" as neighbor, coworker, or passerby? What do those who are compulsive in their insistence that we arm our citizenry fear will be taken from them?

Would be interested in any thoughts you may have.

[samsingh]

1. each other

[HereSince1628]

6. ^^^THIS^^^

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Yep.

[samsingh]

2. actually, the repugs, mentally inferior

are prone to paranoia and fear. this is a biological fact.

[backscatter712]

3. Right-wingers afraid of brown people.

They want to be able to go Zimmerman on them with impunity.

[abelenkpe]

4. Fear of tyrannical government is the number one reason

I hear from gun owners. Which makes me concerned for their sanity. More reasonable people claim home security or hunting. Interestingly the ones claiming home security or hunting tend to have fewer weapons and are open to reasonable gun control. Only the ones fearing the government are adamantly against gun control.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Ding, ding, ding

There is an insurrectionist thread running through the culture.

[HereSince1628]

9. A nation born in rebellion, and yeomanship

The Rebel seeking freedom and the Marlboro Man living it are our heros.

[samsingh]

18. i don't think their pidly weapons are a match for a US government that becomes tyrannical

protecting voting rights and having an honest supreme court (as opposed to the one we have now) is a more effective way to go.

ironically, supporting the nra has spawned more tyranny in government - see bush years and iran-contra under raygun.

[meow2u3]

20. That's exactly their idea of tyranny

They think freedom is the right to oppress people they don't like with impunity.

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. Americans are just plain addicted to fear. n/t

[former-republican]

10. A young nation born in blood

People oppressed and hanged for the color of their skin.
People born in poverty with no perceived hope of a future.
People being beaten , tasered by police for expressing an anti-corporatist demonstration.
No knock warrants being conducted on wrong address with people being killed in their own home .
Government run by money , power and greed

[Bluenorthwest]

11. They are afraid of Americans.

[dionysus]

25. classic tune

[Raksha]

39. You nailed it - they are afraid of Americans.

[etherealtruth]

12. Gun nuts

... and clowns

[a geek named Bob]

26. but you have to hit the nose... n/t

[Mnemosyne]

13. Themselves. nt

[Initech]

14. I fear someone walking into a mall, movie theater, arena, etc.

Last edited Sat Dec 22, 2012, 08:48 PM - Edit history (1)

With a semi or fully automatic shotgun.

I fear terrorists sneaking a nuclear weapon into the Port of Long Beach.

I fear a magnitude 9.0 earthquake striking San Diego and it destroys the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant.

I fear a power mad, profit hungry CEO firing his entire staff of 50,000 and looting the company for financial gain.



Those are things that I fear.

[99Forever]

15. The rest of the...

... crazy part of the population that thinks just like them. In other words, themselves.

[hack89]

16. I don't own guns due to fear

my entire family is involved in competitive target shooting. When not at the range my guns are locked up. I live in a save town - only two gun murders in 15 years.

[former-republican]

19. Actually most gun owners are the same. Even the ones that bought a single gun

for home self defense. It wasn't out blinding fear it was just a feeling of security in case the police can't respond fast enough.


I shoot F class open and Target and even though I have a CCW
I don't carry it to go to my local grocery store.

I actually can't even remember the last time it was out of the safe.

[former-republican]

17. Ask this couple

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022056368

[gulliver]

21. It's basic anxiety, imo

Some people learn to deal with anxiety, and some don't. Scratch an assault weapon owner and you'll find an anxiety-riddled personality underneath. They aren't actually afraid of anything real. That is why they are so impervious to arguments about real risk.

So one way to fight the AW possession and concealed carry fads is to reduce anxiety through healthy means (meditation, mentalizing, performing tasks, etc.). Another way is to make the fads more anxiety-producing than they are anxiety-reducing. I argued in another thread that if individual people simply posted the names of "flake weapon" owners on-line somewhere, that would make the fads more trouble than they are worth. Fear of job or relationship loss would outweigh the anxiety-reducing benefits.

But do I believe that the militia types really are afraid of government tyranny? No. Do I believe that the types who want to carry guns at all times have ever or will ever face genuine threats? No. These people just choose to focus their fears on these false rationales. They really fear life.

[Buns_of_Fire]

22. Apparently, whatever Rush Limbaugh and Faux News are afraid of: Everything. nt

[TwilightGardener]

23. I do understand the fear of being home and someone is trying to

break in--I have that fear myself sometimes. I can understand wanting a gun for that purpose. I don't understand any desire to want to carry a gun everywhere one goes, or the desire to have a stockpile of them. That's where it seems unhealthy and obsessive to me.

[marions ghost]

24. Change

Used to be, a man defended his property. Women & minorities stayed in their place. Gays stayed hidden or suicided. Muslims stayed in Iraq. Everything was nice and orderly. And then all those people got outta their place. So we gotta show em who's boss.

A gun is merely a symbol of "security" that makes people feel better. Doesn't guarantee a single thing about survival. In fact, gun ownership is correlated with a greater chance of death by gun.

[customerserviceguy]

27. I was a gun owner for about ten years

Nearly got killed by some drunk yahoos who ran me off the road into a short ditch, and were about to bust open my driver's side window with a shovel, when my frantic honking finally got someone to slow down on the other side of the road. At that point, they took off. I decided I was never going to be that vulnerable again.

In time, I got over it, and a girlfriend I had proposed to wanted me to give up the gun. I did, but I haven't been the victim of a crime in the thirty years since. I suppose I've been lucky, but there are those who see rampant crime all around them, and I don't blame them a bit for wanting one last chance to protect themselves.

[RKP5637]

28. I think the common thread is tribalism fueled by the 'Hate for Profit' Media. n/t

[riverbendviewgal]

29. read in mother jones.

Oath keepers and the age of treason].

March /April.2010

Scared.me a lot.

[Dawson Leery]

31. +1

[Jim Warren]

30. Fear is a product

common, sold in marketplace and apparently a very lucrative one.

[reteachinwi]

32. Enduring part of our culture

http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2009/12/i-find-it-hard-to-believe-this-is-over-thirty-years-old/

[ladjf]

33. We've become a nation that thinks like field mice. nt

[Rex]

34. FUD.

.

[Skidmore]

35. What?

[Rex]

38. Fear, uncertainty and doubt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

[randome]

36. The world moves too fast for some.

They can't keep up with the pace of change and so they begin looking at things through a prism that divides the world into something they can better understand -armed camps.

I also think the 21st century, more than any other, has seen the weakening of Religion's iron hold on everyone's throats. Just the fact that gay rights and contraception are, in essence, giving the middle finger to the Catholic Church, is a sign that we are, indeed, living in the End Times. It's the end of Religion as we know it, just as it's the end of the GOP.

It's still going to take time. Getting from Point A to Point B will be no picnic. But it is happening. And as it's happening, many will stomp their feet and arm themselves and blather endlessly about it.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. Everything. I blame the TV. Crime rates are lower than they have probably ever been,

and they've been declining for decades, but what crime there is is so sensationalized and broadcast over and over that too many, maybe most, Americans believe that there's a mugger-rapist-murderer behind every bush and lurking in every shadow.

Just ask any parent, especially the new ones, and they can relate ever tale they've ever heard to justify their paranoid delusion that if little johnny ever leaves their sight for even a moment, he will be snatched and will never seen again.

Every night the evening infotainment hour tells them that everything can, and probably will, kill you. Your babysitter, your hair care products, the restaurant you eat at, and the little old lady feeding pigeons in the park is really staking you out for the Big Score.

If people would just turn that idiot box off for a couple of months their lives would become so much better they might not turn it on again, and that would be a real disaster.