Guns, tribes, and myths
There is a real sense in which guns divide us into tribes. John Marshall’s tribe is as alien to me as guns are to him.
But belonging to a tribe doesn’t require one to accept its myths, rituals, and priests.
The great myth on the left is that culture can be rewritten with the stroke of a legislative pen. Bill Clinton is wise to warn against that notion. America is exceptional, in how many people own guns, and in the roots of that.
The myth on the right is that they understand and defend America’s origins. The right’s gospel of early state militias doesn’t accommodate their use to preserve slavery, or to squash tax rebellions. The related myth, that their guns defend American liberty, varies from the absurd that Conor Friedersdorf dissects, to the comical and Limbaugh-scale grotesque.
Glenn Kessler fact checks the NRA claim that the Sidwell Friends has eleven armed guards.
In the WP article, two things caught my eye. First, the charts showed the number of guns per 100 people. I never got a feel for what percentage of people actually own one or more guns. It’s well known that guns in gun safes breed (or at least that’s what one tells the spouse). Anyways, I suspect most gun owners in the US own quite a few guns, which would inflate one’s estimation of gun ownership. (I also suspect that the rate of multiple gun ownership is much higher in the US than other countries.) Second, the article says, “America’s gun-related murder rate is the highest in the developed world, excluding Mexico, where the ongoing drug war pushes the murder stats way up.” I suspect a lot of America’s gun-related murder rate is also related to an ongoing drug war.
“Peculiar circumstance” always is the problem with cross-nation or cross-state comparisons.
You’re right, of course, that most gun owners own more than one gun. I don’t think guns are distinctive in that regard. Most boat owners own more than one boat. Most anglers own more than one tackle. And the average birder has enough binoculars to equip all the spies in Iran. One of the polling organizations — I forget which — tracks how many American households have a gun. If I recall correctly, it’s around half.