i don't doubt that in the next 20 yrs or so, when the financial mkts crash & can't be revived, & the plutocrats' power structure is threatened they will attempt to disarm the american ppl.

I have an appreciation of, and attraction to precision mechanical contrivances, like cameras, sewing machines, pocket watches, etc. It’s easy to fall in love with them and want to start a collection.

Guns belong in that genre too, and I know plenty of guys, and some women, who collect them because of their appreciation for the design, history, and workmanship in them, just like people who collect grandfather clocks or toy trains.

I also know some people who believe having and knowing how to use guns is the responsible, and honorable thing to do in a world where murder, rape and robbery of innocent people do still very much happen.

I know people whose life circumstances put them in the path of such violence much more than my comfortable, safe, white, middle class circumstances do.

I also know men who live in crimeless, suburban utopias who identify with Clint Eastwood, and the romance of gun culture, and read lots of NRA propaganda, and fantasize about heroically saving their family from some nebulous criminal injustice, someday.

Then there are the serious preppers who are sure civilization will be collapsing next week, and are armed to the teeth to protect their ten year supply of rations.

I grew up in the rural gun culture of the deep American South of the mid twentieth century. I have seen the practical side of firearms for hunting and varmint control. I also understand that humans do all kinds of things that have no connection to any pragmatic rationale.

I’m not practical either. I don’t want my survival fantasy to depend on brute force. When the walls of civilization start crumbling, I want to imagine I’ll be smart enough to anticipate far enough in advance to step aboard my micro-cruiser and sail to that unperturbed, and forgotten island, where I’ll live out the remainder of my life in peace, while the rest of the world fights to the death over the last bucket of gasoline.

But realistically, I have mowing to do.

They seem to be afraid of everything. The government might come and get them, the illegals might invade, any home invasion, they are obsessed with home invasions. Just baffeling.

I have a couple of acquaintances that fit that category and they seem to be afraid of most everything. They are strong believers in god, don't believe in science, believe in things that go bump in the night and are suspicious of most everyone. They both have lots of guns.