For decades the US has armed small countries to support our interests in a region. There's been that but, make no mistake it's been for fun and profit as well. Mostly profit, really. The fun is that R&D gets to research and develop the capabilities of weaponry when we have no wars of our own to fight, using the flesh and blood of others. Sometimes arms can be traded for hostages. See: Iran Contra.
There's about 315 million people in this country. Given that we're friendly with our neighbors to the North and the South and have the finest military the world has ever known protecting us, it's just marketing genius that we be supplied with guns to protect us from each other. I'm sure that's covered in The Second Amendment. Isn't everything? Here it is:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"
See? It's there. And NO gay marriage! Just like Jesus and the founders wanted it.
Whether it's school shootings or car-jackings, we are reminded every day that we are in danger and the only solution is to arm ourselves to the teeth. It's an arms race.
Depending upon where you live, this is a very dangerous country. It's hard to argue that. Most of us will live long lives without ever being robbed or physically threatened where life or death is suddenly decided but, some among us deal with that nearly every day. Some do live in fear.
But, not enough of us do, I think, from an NRA or gun manufacturers perspective. The tens of millions of Americans who do not own guns (or only one) are a market desperately needing to be tapped by them. Tapped and flooded would be ideal.
Let's not kid ourselves. The NRA is nothing but a lobbying service for the gun makers. If you want to argue that "unions were a good thing back in the day but got too big for their britches..." you should really believe that the same argument could be made about the NRA and it's original intent to support hunting, sport shooting and gun safety. Funny thing but, the same folks who want to throw unions out with the bathwater are staunch supporters of all things NRA. There's NO danger of hunting being outlawed or gun safety being rejected, yet the NRA goes on and on.
In 1996, in Port Arthur, Australia, a man killed 35 people and wounded 23 with a Colt AR15, equipped with 30 round magazines. Read about that, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(Australia)
The massacre horrified Australia and they acted to severely restrict gun ownership.They haven't had a massacre since.
Here in America, earlier this month, 20 six year olds and six adults were murdered by a young man with a similar weapon. We were horrified but, we went out and bought more guns.
Wayne LaPierre, spokes-shill for the NRA and the gun manufacturers came out of hiding after a week and stated that the thing to do would be to arm all teachers and school personnel. And, of course, buy more guns!
Can you imagine the republican outrage if our African-American president had suggested arming teachers (who just months ago were Union thugs) or stated that putting armed police/security guards in every school was the solution? Good grief! With the fiscal cliff bullshit looming as we speak, that would be as insane as it is impractical.
I imagine LaPierre has some outrage in his Kevlar-wrapped heart for what happened and some degree of sympathy for the dead. I might be wrong about that though. Rather, I think he saw opportunity and free publicity.
We are a nation of people who can sell snow to Eskimos. Add patriotism and the 2A to that and the innate desire of most men (and many women) to be John Wayne and you've got a recipe for consumerism that cannot be beat.
We can try though. We can try harder. There are 26 bodies- 20 of them as small as your children's- torn grotesquely apart by some motherfucker, also in his grave- who now has other motherfuckers preaching the sanctity of the 2A as the solution rather than the cause.
More, more and more...
Neither Jesus or the founders would have approved.
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