(In light of recent events, this is the first of a series of postings on guns in America.)
As we know only too well, our country has more guns, and experiences more gun violence, than any nation on the planet that is not in the middle of a civil war. This is true even when we are compared with countries that are roughly geographically and culturally comparable (Australia and Canada). Why?
I think there are three reasons:
1. Standing armies and central government tyranny were linked in the eyes of many of the Patriots in the American Revolution, so the widespread ownership of guns and the use of militias is in our political DNA. It is not surprising that some right-wingers view private gun ownership as a check against the unwarranted usurpation of power by the federal government, given the history of this issue. You would not see that, or a Second Amendment, in other countries.
2. The American political system gives an unusual amount of power to rural states in which gun ownership is extremely important. I don’t think rural voters have the same degree of clout at the federal level in Canada and Australia as they do here. As a result, it is very difficult to pass gun control legislation in the US even under the best of circumstances.
3. There is a clear correlation between right-wing Christian evangelicals and passion for gun ownership that doesn’t exist in more secular countries. The theological basis for this is unclear to me, but there is a reason why the bumper sticker tells us that “God, guns, and guts made America great.”