Frans, about “gun culture”, there’s one thing important to know: that’s a wrong term.
wrong, because it implies a “cultural” side of the owning on guns, which leads precisely people to understand its meaning by defining “gun culture” as, from your words: “Is the possession of a gun romance ? The juvenile “Dirty Harry” feeling (…)”. Reason why I prefer to say “familiarity with guns” instead of “gun culture”, it’s longer to say but it’s much more “accurate” if I can say so :]
anyway, “familiarity with guns” means simply that, in a given era in a given country, its citizens are “close” from guns; understand they’ve already seen some before, probably have shot with some, in short they know that it’s not a toy and that there’s a big responsibility in owning a gun. thanks to the relatives and familial environment owning guns, people living in a country where there is a “familiarity with guns” don’t perceive the firearm as a tool of power: as it is something unusual, seen and known, the firearm is not seen as something “cool” and “attractive because it’s forbidden” as it is the case in countries that have lost this familiarity with guns.
in short, that’s the difference between an English teenager born and living in London and an American teenager born and living in a state where there is that familiarity with guns: the first, if he seens a gun, will be attracted by it as it is something unusual in his life and as the gun is portrayed in movies, series etc. as “cool”; the second, having been educated on the fact that a gun is not a toy and being used to see guns, will not be attracted by it. The result ? you can bet that the chances that the first teenager uses the gun he found like a toy and eventually shoots accidentally someone will be higher than if it was the second teenager that has found the gun.
education, as always… that being said, the familiarity with guns is not the panacea, it must be viewed as a solution of replacement for a real, standardized education about guns given during childhood by firearms instructors at school: the goal is not to teach SWAT techniques to the children, but to ensure that a qualified specialist will teach them the basic safety rules, and demythologizes the image of the firearm given in movies or in series (for instance, the fact that you can get shot in the arm and have absolutely no sequel after that. on the contrary, you can lose the complete mobility of your arm, depending on the unpredictable behavior of a bullet against a bone).
so as to sum up, we teach children the basic knowledge to have in order to avoid getting pregnant at 15, and that’s indeed extremely important, but we should teach children how to avoid shooting their buddies by accident after having discovered a gun and “played” with it.
you also said:
“And again in reality : whether you have a gun or not , the government will always be a massive institution, awe-inspiring and frustrating sometimes.”
the government is a massive institution only because we allow it to do so 
the government can (and should, it’s my opinion as a Libertarian) limited to the two main domains it can cover without screwing everything up anytime: Justice and Armed Forces, notice the “anytime” and what I imply using this word.
as an end to this post, please know that the so-called “wild west” (or “far west” in Europe) was far to be that wild… the way “wild west” is depicted in movies is romantic, hence historically wrong.
this is a good link to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A698538
” from guns; understand they’ve already seen some before, probably have shot with some, in short they know that it’s not a toy and that there’s a big responsibility in owning a gun. thanks to the relatives and familial environment owning guns, people living in a country where there is a “familiarity with guns” don’t perceive the firearm as a tool of power: as it is something unusual, seen and known, the firearm is not seen as something “cool” and “attractive because it’s forbidden” as it is the case in countries that have lost this familiarity with guns.
in short, that’s the difference between an English teenager born and living in London and an American teenager born and living in a state where there is that familiarity with guns: the first, if he seens a gun, will be attracted by it as it is something unusual in his life and as the gun is portrayed in movies, series etc. as “cool”; the second, having been educated on the fact that a gun is not a toy and being used to see guns, will not be attracted by it. The result ? you can bet that the chances that the first teenager uses the gun he found like a toy and eventually shoots accidentally someone will be higher than if it was the second teenager that has found the gun.
education, as always… that being said, the familiarity with guns is not the panacea, it must be viewed as a solution of replacement for a real, standardized education about guns given during childhood by firearms instructors at school: the goal is not to teach SWAT techniques to the children, but to ensure that a qualified specialist will teach them the basic safety rules, and demythologizes the image of the firearm given in movies or in series (for instance, the fact that you can get shot in the arm and have absolutely no sequel after that. on the contrary, you can lose the complete mobility of your arm, depending on the unpredictable behavior of a bullet against a bone).
so as to sum up, we teach children the basic knowledge to have in order to avoid getting pregnant at 15, and that’s indeed extremely important, but we should teach children how to avoid shooting their buddies by accident after having discovered a gun and “played” with it.
you also said:
“And again in reality : whether you have a gun or not , the government will always be a massive institution, awe-inspiring and frustrating sometimes.”
the government is a massive institution only because we allow it to do so
the government can (and should, it’s my opinion as a Libertarian) limited to the two main domains it can cover without screwing everything up anytime: Justice and Armed Forces, notice the “anytime” and what I imply using this word.
as an end to this post, please know that the so-called “wild west” (or “far west” in Europe) was far to be that wild… the way “wild west” is depicted in movies is romantic, hence historically wrong.
this is a good link to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A698538
” from guns; understand they’ve already seen some before, probably have shot with some, in short they know that it’s not a toy and that there’s a big responsibility in owning a gun. thanks to the relatives and familial environment owning guns, people living in a country where there is a “familiarity with guns” don’t perceive the firearm as a tool of power: as it is something unusual, seen and known, the firearm is not seen as something “cool” and “attractive because it’s forbidden” as it is the case in countries that have lost this familiarity with guns.
in short, that’s the difference between an English teenager born and living in London and an American teenager born and living in a state where there is that familiarity with guns: the first, if he seens a gun, will be attracted by it as it is something unusual in his life and as the gun is portrayed in movies, series etc. as “cool”; the second, having been educated on the fact that a gun is not a toy and being used to see guns, will not be attracted by it. The result ? you can bet that the chances that the first teenager uses the gun he found like a toy and eventually shoots accidentally someone will be higher than if it was the second teenager that has found the gun.
education, as always… that being said, the familiarity with guns is not the panacea, it must be viewed as a solution of replacement for a real, standardized education about guns given during childhood by firearms instructors at school: the goal is not to teach SWAT techniques to the children, but to ensure that a qualified specialist will teach them the basic safety rules, and demythologizes the image of the firearm given in movies or in series (for instance, the fact that you can get shot in the arm and have absolutely no sequel after that. on the contrary, you can lose the complete mobility of your arm, depending on the unpredictable behavior of a bullet against a bone).
so as to sum up, we teach children the basic knowledge to have in order to avoid getting pregnant at 15, and that’s indeed extremely important, but we should teach children how to avoid shooting their buddies by accident after having discovered a gun and “played” with it.
you also said:
“And again in reality : whether you have a gun or not , the government will always be a massive institution, awe-inspiring and frustrating sometimes.”
the government is a massive institution only because we allow it to do so
the government can (and should, in my opinion) be limited to the two main domains (my opinion always) it can cover without screwing everything up anytime: Justice and Armed Forces, notice the “anytime” and what I imply using this word.
as an end to this post, please know that the so-called “wild west” (or “far west” in Europe) was far to be that wild… the way “wild west” is depicted in movies is romantic, hence historically wrong.
here are some good links on the subject:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A698538
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-wild-west-of-myth-and-reality.html
http://www.perc.org/perc.php?id=572
