I don’t buy such. Religion is a whole other discussion though ;)

Religion is a whole other discussion though — I like sushi

Well I dont think so. Given the weight of empirical evidence that the 2nd amendment is wrong, and justified self defense is more dangerous to citizens than criminals, self defense with firearms has become part of the whole atheistic, Randian, Nietzschian, self above everything and then we die, Darwinian survival above all else cult.

That’s a strange spin on things. Can you elaborate please?

The NRA has run into problems increasing US sales because everyone who wants a gun has already bought one. So its remaining market is to sell guns which can do things that the ones gun owners already have can't. So now its most profitable business sector is AR-15s, and who wants assault rifles? You have to terrify the bejeebles out of people to buy assault rifles, so the rhetoric surrounding the need for self defense has increased to religious levels.

You mean like my dad’s buddy who was told he’d be thrown out of local church circle if he didn’t buy a bigger handgun?

Religious fanaticism is certainly a factor in violence. I still don’t any serious explanation why people are walking around scare? Where does this fear come from? Why is it not so apparent in other countries?

I still don’t any serious explanation why people are walking around scare? Where does this fear come from? Why is it not so apparent in other countries? — I like sushi

"Religion, you see, is not in its roots adoration of a god or a goddess. Religion is fear. Religion is the spark that issues forth when the thought of death or danger strikes the individual. It's personal. It grows out of darkness and uncertainty.""
A E Van Vogt, Book of Ptath — ernestm

I would say religion is more like a way of relating to fear. Fear is a psychological relation to a potential theat (whether real or imagined), and it exists in most primal levels of the psyche. The fact of our very existence is the primary cause of our fear.

People take measures against their fear (like turning to government/police/church for protection, or arming themselves). Yet, no matter what they do, they cannot outrun their fear - it seems, with every solution to neutralize a threat, there is always something else to fear ad infintum.

In the present age, religion has become a novelty and a group activity, and as far as common knowledge goes, the personal and psychological aspects are largely ignored.

Religion is a way of being that goes strait to the heart of the existing one's being. And in doing so, it confronts all things necessitated by that very existence, e.g. fear. Fear takes on a different relation in religion. Religion neutralizes the threat of fear by making any and all possibility of threat inconsequential in relation to one's existing...

It neutralizes the threat of fear by making any and all possibility of threat inconsequential in relation to one's existing... — Merkwurdichliebe

I agree, that's why I think firearms for self defense have become a religion. People genuinely believe they are safer with a gun in the home, no matter how much the evidence repeatedly demonstrates otherwise.

I agree, that's why I think firearms for self defense have become a religion. — ernestm

It is a false religion, because it does not directly address the fear. Fear is not the possibility of threat in the world, it is a psychological condition in the individual. Guns rights or gun control might handle the external threat, but imo, religion is the only thing that truly addresses the existential fear (or psychological fear over the threat of existence) from which all other fears are derived.

BTW, how do you get "about 96 privately owned guns per 100 civilians"? — Bitter Crank

There are approximately 120 privately owned guns per citizen, so remove 20% of that yadda yadda

Where did that figure come from???

There are more than 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States, or enough for every man, woman and child to own one and still have 67 million guns left over.

Those numbers come from the latest edition of the global Small Arms Survey, a project of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

The report, which draws on official data, survey data and other measures for 230 countries, finds that global firearm ownership is heavily concentrated in the United States.

Where did that figure come from??? — Bitter Crank

Here, which percentage-wise is roughly the same as 393M civilian-owned guns out of 326M civilians.