Many who know me from the numerous forums I frequent, would say that I am anti-American (which is crap, although I do not agree with the foreign policy of the US, their Imperialist ways, or their actions in and around Iraq). Despite that, and despite me thinking that many, not all, not the majority, but many Americans are uneducated, I found myself in a position where I was defending the “American Way” this morning. I overheard the team muppet talking about the recent Amish School killings in Pennsylvania. He said, and this is a paraphrased version, that:
You know why it happened though, don’t you? It’s because those yanks have too many guns. Do you know why they have guns? It’s because they have a society built on fear of terrorists. It’s because they are scared of being attacked so all Americans have guns because of this. I read about one guy who went to open a bank account and his free gift was a gun. He asked if the bank thought it was wise to give away free guns. Michael Moore. . . Bowling for Columbine. . .
At that point I had to interject. I know enough Americans and know enough about America to know that Michael Moore is not a representative of the American people. He’s a sensationalist tabloid hack. That people here in the UK are still reading Moore or watching Moore and believing the bull he spews makes me doubt the intellect of the population. The guy in question, whilst not a shining light of intellectual ability, is not a complete idiot, and yet he looks to Michael Moore to make sense of the world? Jesus. What the hell?
So at this point, like I said, I had to interject. It also made me realise a few things, or at least understand that I knew a few things which had not previously been apparent to me.
The reason there is a gun culture in the United States is because there is a Constitutional Right to Bare Arms. Simple as that. The nation is just 230 years old. At that time, here in Europe, we had society, unity, civilisation. Sure we still fought and we still killed, but we weren’t entering uncharted regions of the planet and setting up our homes within spitting distance of the natives. Note that we can’t blame America for that, as it was European settlers who did it. The forefathers of America today. So in very recent history America needed guns for self protection, it was written into their constitution as a result of this, and it remains a part of American life today.
I’m stupefied that people are so ignorant of history that they can credit a modern situation for a culture which has existing since the birth of a nation.
