Just another gun thread, don't bother reading.

[Esquilax]

I'm constantly baffled by the way America fetishizes guns and the ownership thereof. I sometimes wonder whether, if the right to bear arms wasn't in the constitution, a similarly fetishized piece of Americana, guns would still be such a point of pride.

In Australia the gun laws are eminently logical, and were prompted into existence for logical reasons. A rash of gun violence happened, and as a result tighter gun laws were enacted. Another shooting happened- one shooting, after violent crime went down following the first restrictions- and the laws got tighter still. Crime continues to drop, and yet... you can own a gun. You need to have a firearms license, register the piece, and so on, but you can have one. The government even takes the reason you want one into account: you can't have a gun just to have one, but if you want one for a reason, like sport shooting or competitive marksmanship, it's yours, so long as you're willing to be responsible.

I look at America, and apparently simple expectations like that are a bad thing?