In this BBC mock-u-mentary, gun collector Ron Hill offers Auntie Beeb some helpful insights into Americans’ love affair with guns. But it’s still your usual firearms freedom freak show. Specifically, machine guns! The film leaves British (and world) viewers with the impression that the average American owns a fully-automatic weapon. Literally. The last image shows . . .

Mr. Hill using the giggle switch on one of his full-auto rifles. Not that there’s anything wrong with machine guns, just that they’re being used here to paint The People of the Gun as wackos. We need to do a counter-documentary on Why Brits Love Such Horrible Food. They eat black pudding! 

Meanwhile, let’s set Great Britain’s hoplohobia’s harridans straight. Why do Americans love their guns?

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137 COMMENTS

    • I was actually fine with it. We know how the Brits feel about our RKBA (salty – sore losers that they are), but that piece was devoid of narration other than the words of the gun owners themselves. I thought it was perfectly fine, and didn’t attempt to make us look like cousin-humpin’ rednecks. Even included the voice of a woman gun owner. I’d say we’re winning the culture war at this point.

      • Agreed. The crown tried once before to deny our RKBA. The people had enough and war broke out on the fields of Lexington, Massachusetts because of the crown’s attempt to disarm us.

    • The most common report I read on taking newbies to the range, especially when they are gun grabbers or fence sitters at best, is how much they smile and have fun and can’t wait to go again.

      Guns are fun. Everybody gets a kick out of punching holes in a paper bad guy or knocking tin cans around; action at a distance, usually good feedback on how you missed, no rigid rules.

      You don’t have to be superbly skilled or in top athletic form to be moderately good. It takes only a little practice to put holes where you want in a silhouette at 10 yards, or to hit a scuba tank hanging in the trees 100 feet away. You can be good enough to see results within just a few shots, and you can immediately see what you need to practice to get better.

      They do cost more than, say, a basketball, but nothing like bicycles, skiing, golf, or other expensive hobbies, which take a lot of skill to be moderately good at.

      • I believe the saying goes, ‘shooting handguns is simple, it’s just not easy.’ It’s challenging enough to keep it from getting boring, but easy enough to see rapid progress so you don’t get discouraged.

        Personally I get a kick out of hitting 3D targets low so they fly up in they air. I had my brother-in-law out at the range last summer and he had shot up the middle/top of a 2 liter bottle filled with water. I explained how he needs to hit it low so it will fly up in the air and pulled out my EDC GP100 loaded with Remington 125gr. hollow points and shot. That half full bottle flew a good 15 feet in the air. If that don’t put a grin on your face you must be lobotomized.

        • Absolutely — one gallon milk jugs are a trip! I’m near-sighted enough to never be an expert, and can’t manage better than a six inch group at 100 feet without a scope, on a bright day with good sights. Once I got good enough to reliably hit milk jugs, then the goal became hitting them just right to make them jump, sometimes 50 feet up or sideways.

        • My next dream gun is a Ruger GP100 4.2″ SS … I assume if you EDC your GP100 you really like it. True?

        • I liked my first GP so much I bought a second one. I carry a 3″ Wiley Clapp and I keep a 6″ stainless around as a house gun. The WC grip which is the original style rubber grip with wood side panels is much better IMO than the Hogue that comes on the standard model, but you can buy them from Altamont. Pretty reasonably priced too. Another nice thing about the standard GP is that you can swap out the front sight yourself if you’ve got about 2 seconds to spare. Put a Hi-Viz fiber optic on the 6″. Wilson Combat and Wolff make reduced power spring kits that will drop the pull weights about a pound or so. They run about $10. Plan on it taking the better part of an hour if you’ve never taken one down before.

  2. I don’t love mine. I have only two. They were both chosen/built with utilitarian considerations only. Lots of plastic and aluminum, black and FDE, no warmth or soul. I feel bad saying this.
    I could love the SP101 I bought for my wife if I allowed myself to though.

    • I am just the opposite. I have 1851, 1861 1862 and (2) 1873 Colt clones that I bought because they are indeed beautiful. I (so far) have two custom holsters, one for the 1862 and one for a 4.75″ 1873 (that just arrived today!), plus another (hand carved) Sacramento Rose holster (from Purdy Gear) on order that should arrive in July for the 1861, all of which are works of art in their own right. I have almost completed a Kentucky long rifle (percussion, .50 cal) from a Traditions kit because the originals are beautiful (and I wanted something to practice building before I went whole hog into a very expensive kit with a curly maple stock).

      Do I have “utilitarian” guns? Sure, a Kimber 1911 and a Kahr CW9 (whose slide I polished, just because), and a couple of rifles, but those I just love to shoot.

  3. I think Mexicans, Venezuelans, Nigerians, Spaniards, Chinese, and even North Koreans would love guns too if they were allowed to have them.

  4. Maybe we just love freedom. We love freedom of religion. We love freedom of speech. We love freedom of the press…etc…etc…etc.

    Our arms are the last line of defense of those other freedoms.

    Plinking is fun too.

    • “Plinking” is the magic word: take any noob to guns out on a nice day, show them the basics with a .22 pistol, set them up in front of a row of soda cans and watch a new gun nut be born. Its a beautiful sight…

      • That’s how I got started. One of my high school buddies invited me out to shoot .22’s. I didn’t have one, so he brought his .22 bolt action, and borrowed his dad’s Marlin 60.

        Once I shot that Marlin 60, I fell in love. Before long, I had my own Marlin 60. Later, I added a Mosin, then an AK, then a bunch of other guns.

        I still love the Marlin 60.

        It all started with the .22 rifle.

    • Armed rebellion against a government, AND the spark that set it all off was when they went to confiscate privately owned firearms (and a cannon) at Lexington and Concord.

      Antis willingly forget this.

    • Yup. And the only DUTY mentioned in the Declaration of Independence explains why those American revolutionaries put the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights:
      “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their DUTY, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

  6. I don’t think it’s the fact that americans love their guns, As it is they love the freedom to be able to own and use firearms. This has fundamentalBacking by the Constitution Of the United States of America. People aren’t gun nuts In this country, their freedom activists That like the fact that we can do as we please in this country without government infringement, tyranny if you will that’s what the Constitution was set up to protect the citizens of this country from tyranny! Maybe the President Obama should actually read the Constitution instead of using it as toilet paper to wipe his ass with!

  7. WE love guns because we CAN. And let’s not rescue Britain when they get attacked by jihad jimi…citizens and not subjects.

  8. Why do the Brits hate dentists?
    While I don’t love my guns, I do like the happiness, freedom and food they provide me, and the pursuit thereof.
    The Brits are just still upset over losing this country.

    • I don’t think the British are still upset over losing America, so much as they are upset at their descent into complete irrelevancy on the world stage. Once a world-spanning empire with global influence, now they’re almost complete out of the picture in all the ways that matter.

      • I beg to differ. The Brits put up a stalwart defense agains the Nazi war machine. the only country to do so. Sure you can point to the russians, but they lost soo much ground until the nasty russian winter hit. the same russian army lost to the Finns, despite their numerical superiority because the russian winter had no effect on the Finns like they did the Germans.

        • Britain would have certainly been overrun by the Germans if it wasn’t for the British channel. Being an island (plus the British navy) is the ONLY thing that saved their asses early on in the war. The Germans could not launch an amphibious (or airborne) assault of that magnitude. France could have withstood the Germans much better if they had an ocean separating them from the German army. That’s not knocking the British. The British people fought heroically in WWII. They just weren’t ready for the war. Churchill was a great man, by Chamberlain was a putz.

          I hate to admit it (as an American), but frankly Russia did the lion’s share of the war against Germany anyway.

          WWI and WWII really diminished the British Empire. They never came back from those two wars. Secularism, Socialism, and Feminism, have further weakened that once great nation.

        • A slight historical correction, if you please. The Soviet Union/Red Army won all of their initial objectives in the “Winter War” against Finland, but at enormous and unnecessary cost in men and equipment due to really stupid military leadership and strategy/tactics. In the end their numerical superiority, and willingness to sacrifice tens of thousands of conscripted soldiers to bombs, bullets, artillery and freezing to death, won a war of attrition that the Fins had no hope of defeating.

          Stalin was a murderous thug and was responsible for killing more Soviet troops due to his indifference to human life than than the German army, but to say that they did not eventually defeat their enemies in spite of Stalin’s failures is just wrong.

  9. I love guns because I love freedom. The rest of the world can mock but at the end of the day we the people control our country and not the other way around. God bless the US of A.

    • “…at the end of the day we the people control our country and not the other way around.”

      This^^^

      The question isn’t “why” should someone “love” guns, but “Whatever – different strokes.” People like what they like.

      You know, the way they put this to begin with is snarkey and insulting. They should get themselves on John Stewart where they can play Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to their hearts’ content, properly labeled as comedy. (Stewart’s degeneration was a shame, really. He was often brilliant in the past.)

      Perhaps they could help us make some mocumentaries of bizarre, cherished practices in Jolly-Old, complete with insult-by-inquiry in the title: “The Search for Teeth – Dentistry in the UK.”, “Population Control through Beheadings in the Street”, “Why Does the UK Love Rape Rings So Much?”

      Oh, wait. That’s the rest of the BBC’s programming.

      Nevermind.

      And really, I think it may be time to stop letting the gutter insults pass. What, this is an insult-a-thon? OK, then, you really should talk with your tailor.

      /Breaking it Down for The Dense Our British Friends

      Unless individuals have to justify everything they do to the wad, or the overlords (but, I repeat myself), ya don’t have to “love” something to do it. “Hey, I feel like it.” is all it takes. The burden of proof is on the other side – why do you have to stop this?

      We are a republic still, so the citizens run things, doing as they, meaning we, please.

      In a republic, we delegate certain, limited authorities to the government to take care of some things on our behalf, when they can, when we must. So, again the burden of proof: Why is this within what’s been delegated to you? Can you actually solve this? (War on drugs, I’m looking at you.) and Do we have to solve this only this way?

      So the question is backwards. Why do Americans love them some guns? Because.

      Why can’t they get on board with disarming citizens, blah, blah, blah? Make your case. I’ll wait. BTW, that mocumentary didn’t help (If you want an example, there’s this thing called “This is Spinal Tap.”)

  10. Traveled around the world at 16. Lived in the Middle East and Africa. Opened my eyes….

    Our saving grace is we have a choice!

  12. Because George Washington didn’t have a hippie drum circle with the British over their tyranny. He shot them.

  13. A better question is this: Why are most British men such a bunch of soft weaklings?

    The UK use to be such a great country. There are still some real men there, but they are few and far between.

    “Men without chests” as C.S. Lewis once stated.

    • The UK use to be such a great country. There are still some real men there, but they are few and far between.

      How far a country descends into chaos and obscurity is directly proportional to how many of its men (and women) are selfish, unprincipled, weak-minded people.

    • Colonial wars, WW I, WW II…Seems like all the Brits with any balls got them shot off somewhere trying to support the British Empire under the command of less than competent generals.

      • The direct and indirect effects of the casualties suffered by British and Empire forces in WW I should not be underestimated. In Canada, where Army units were based on the Reserve/Militia units and were recruited locally, many small towns saw their future wiped out in an afternoon in the mud and blood of Ypres or Paschendale. In South Africa the loss of so many young men from the leading English and moderate Afrikaner families led to the weakening of the Union Party and the rise of the Conservatives, and ultimately Apartheid. Newfoundland regressed as a colony as a result of Beaumont Hamel – becoming more dependent on Britain whereas previously it had been working towards a more autonomous status.

        In Britain itself, a whole generation of young men were killed, crippled or burned out. The casualties cut across all classes, but in terms of cultural and political leadership, the loss of so many company grade officers, the sons of leading families, was a huge blow to cultural confidence and future political competence.

  14. I won’t deny that some love their guns. Most of us just appreciate what they represent, a little autonomy, a little less to fear in the world, the ability to effectively protect ourselves and those we care about. Tack on to that the responsibility they require, in a world that seems to want to make us responsible for nothing and the government responsible for everything including things that it can never achieve and you get what appears to the outside world as a love affair with guns…

  16. I’m ‘Merican! Where’s my machine gun?!
    I’d have to carry about 25 mags though since one 10-round burst wouldn’t last long enough to stay on target… talk a bout a modern musket! BRRRRP! hold on… bullet button… click,rack, BRRRRP! and repeat…

  17. Love, no. I love my family, I just like spending time shooting my guns more. When family shares this hobby all the better.

  18. ‘The film leaves British (and world) viewers with the impression that the average American owns a fully-automatic weapon. Or five.’

    But is that really a bad thing?

  19. Simple answer: guns are fun. That’s what got me into guns in the first place — just the simple joy of using these simple machines.

    And this is America. Guns are part of who we are.

  21. The more heavily armed the world thinks we are, the better. Well… I can stop right there. That is not a bad thing.

    • Well, at least inoffensive.

      Once you figure out it’s a high starch sausage, a little butter will put it right.

      Even haggis is pretty good, with the right scotch to drink with it!

  23. Because it brings us to Web sites where weird old guys with yellow teeth and operating operators use the term “booger hook” and think they’re (A) clever and (B) original.

    Yeah, I just can’t get enough of that.

    • Booger hook? Who uses their trigger finger for that purpose? – the little one works better.

      Oh by the way, I’ll never buy a Springfield again unless those crappy spam clips stop playing

    • Agreed Bob. Booger hook, giggle switch, bang switch, caliber wars, etc. Everytime I see something like that I cringe. It does us no good and you’re right, it’s neither clever nor funny.

      • I have yet to read a car site that said “The cruise control activated with just a snap of my booger hook” or a motorcycle site that printed “The clutch lever was easily engaged by light pressure from just two booger hooks.”

  24. We love freedom. When the British tried to take away our freedoms, we learned that in order to keep our freedoms, we needed guns. When the British tried to take our guns away so they could take away our freedoms, we went to war and subsequently created a constitution with a clear guarantee that the American people will not be disarmed. If the British once again want to disarm us, I want them to know this: If you (the British) want to give it another try, I will gladly meet you on the battlefield; otherwise, bugger off.

    • … we … created a constitution with a clear guarantee that the American people will not be disarmed.

      Correction: our Constitution guarantees nothing. Rather, good people who are willing to resist evil guarantee that we have a fighting chance to be armed … and continue to resist evil.

  28. We love guns because we love life and guns save lives. Let’s perform a social experiment. Lock a Brit in room next to a gun then release a machete wielding jihadi. I predict 9 out of 10 Brits will find they love guns too.

  30. Okay, I’ll assume the question is posed in earnest and will provide some answers for our wayward British friends.

    Some guns are works of art. Others are excellent and efficient machines. So I suppose some people love guns for the same reasons that others love cars.

    Today, as in the past, gun ownership in America represents a certain independence and self-reliance and taps in to a basic need to be able to have the tools to defend one’s family and community. These concepts are deeply woven into American culture.

    In the media, guns are used to sell movies, music, television programs and all manner of entertainment. Weapons are at the center of many dramas because they represent power and the struggle to control and harness that power.

    In reality, guns are the great equalizer. With a gun, a small woman or even a child has a chance against a larger and stronger man who wishes to do them harm. In this way, they not only symbolize righteousness and justice but every day deliver it, and in most cases without even having to be fired.

    Against this backdrop there is their recreational value. Shooting is fun. It is a valuable physical skill and focusing on the physical and mental aspects of it for some is a great way to relieve stress; That is to say some people enjoy shooting guns for the same reasons the others enjoy playing baseball or golf.

    So I guess I would flip the question back to the Brits: Why do you hate something that delivers so much obvious protection, recreation and utility?

    I suspect many would answer that they hate guns because they enable evil people to more efficiently carry out their evil. If true, perhaps hoplophobes both in Britain and here at home should focus instead on punishing people for the evil that they do instead of denying that sacred duty by blaming the gun.

  31. We love them because, without private ownership of firearms, there never would have been a United States of America. Period. And the Founders didn’t want to leave their progeny helpless before the same government they themselves crafted if and when it surpassed all safeguards against what some of them believed would be an eventual but inevitable descent into tyranny.

  32. I think most of the various reasons I love mine have already been detailed above. So instead of my love I will contribute that the gal that lives next door loves my guns because they are FUN!!! The smile on her face wraps around the back of her head when she comes running out to show friends the targets she kept after our recent trip to the range. Her first ever and a borderline life change event for her. Winning one heart and mind at a time.

  33. I think people ask “why” too much. Often it makes no difference “why” as no justification as to “why” would change the outcome, perception or acceptance.

    Asking me “why” I do a thing, own a thing, like a thing or dislike a thing is complete waste of time for me and for you.

    Also, there is nothing to not like about a Scotch egg nor black pudding for that matter.

  34. As an outsider, but one who is a POTG, I would say Americans love their guns as much as they love their homes, cars, TVs, golf clubs, etc.

    Why do they own guns? Hunting. The challenge of competition. Collecting to appreciate their aesthetics or place in history. And finally defence because Americans have decided not to be victims.

      • There is a very good change that he isn’t an American. Probably an Aussie or a Kiwi because of the whole “Southern Cross” name is actually on both of their national flags. So he is an outsider, even if he wishes he had the same liberties we have. Albeit ours are being whittled away progressively (pun intended).

        • Don’t overlook the British spelling preference of “defence”.

          My point is that what matters is he is an “insider” as a POTG. Nationality is not a consideration.

        • Yes, I’m an Aussie. And one who thinks “dorkfrombrisbane” is at best a troll, and at worst a card-carrying member of the Greens.

          I’ve been actively involved in shooting sports since just after I turned 18. I’m now nearly 47. I compete most weekends in service rifle competition (nothing like learning to do things the hard way to appreciate the easy way). Back in the good old days, I used a SKS and AR-15. Now I’m using Lee-Enfields, Mausers, and Mosin-Nagants.

          Things are not good downunder, but they could be worse. At least growing numbers of license holders who are willing to comply with the requirements means we are not dead yet, much to the Greens’ disgust.

          Keep up the good fight, for all our sakes.

      • Yep.
        All over the world there are “paper punchers” trying to put one hole in the center of the target, and 9 more bullets through the same hole. I share your frustration, and the satisfaction of coming closer to that impossible goal over time.
        Fight the good fight there, as well.

  36. I love guns for many reasons. I’m not a hunter but I love to target shoot and plink. Its just plain fun to me. I also appreciate fine mechanical enngineering and craftsmanship as art, and I love many guns that are aesthetic and mechanical works of art.
    Gun ownership represents freedom to me. Our nation was founded with guns and will also be preserved with guns. As somebody here said gun ownership is one of those things that separates subjects from citizens. Many Americans allow themselves to be subjects…… NOT ME
    A gun is a tool that will allow me to protect myself and my family but it is much more than that to me.

  37. I thought Americans loved their individual freedoms; owning and carrying firearms represented one of those individual freedoms?

  38. “I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
    ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

    • Eowyn: The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them.

      Aragorn: What do you fear, my lady?
      Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.

      A little off topic, but some quotes from the movies I remembered.

  39. Brits fail to understand three things about America. 1. We have more disposable income. 2. When you combine our parking lots the land mass is bigger than their island. 3. The Bill of Rights.

    • And we can thank the Brits for our Bill of Rights. Without them trampling on our rights, some of the fathers of this country would not have fought for its inclusion into the Constitution.

  40. I’d like to point out that it is not Mr Hill shooting full auto. It was another person being interviewed.
    And the NFA34 was discussed, just didn’t make the cut.

  41. As has been stated in various ways, guns as we own them is a unique American freedom. There certainly is that, but more than that, developing an maintaining a skill that can serve to protect myself and my family, provides a sense of independence, as does harvesting game. It also is a part of my family heritage, as well as a common interest that I share with good friends.

  42. I like my gun. I don’t love my gun, becuz that would be weird.

    “The film leaves British (and world) viewers with the impression that the average American owns a fully-automatic weapon. Literally.”

    And yanno, if it hadn’t been for that pesky NFA of ’34 and those gangsters, we’d have gotten away with that, too…

  43. History, mechanical design, emotional and actual value, “groceries”, and my ancestor Isreal Bissell rode several horses into the ground during April 19th 1775 telling his fellow citizens to defend our country against the Brits that had recently killed an ancestor of my wife (Abner Hosmer) in an attempt to disarm them.

  44. I do not exactly love my guns. I love what they enable me to do and think and be. They are a tool I can use to protect myself, my loved ones, and even innocent strangers, from criminal predators and possible government tyranny that would deny my rights to life, liberty and self-determination. Their ownership and use makes me mindful that I can intend no harm to other Human Beings because that would be easy and wrong. Rather, their presence in my life challenges me to choose to practice more difficult actions:compassion, forgiveness, love and respect for the lives,.liberties and pursuit of happiness others prize for themselves, as I do for myself. I love that they enable me to be as free as possible within an organized Society, and they are a means to many hours of enjoyment.
    Disclaimer: Do unto me as I have promised to do unto you, or I WILL shoot your miserable ass.

  46. Q: Why do Americans love their guns?

    A: Why should Americans have to justify themselves to anybody — much less the British?

    Well, we don’t, actually. We won’t. We damn well don’t have to, either, being that our forefathers won their independence from the crown over two centuries ago. It was at that point that their opinions on anything here became completely invalid and irrelevant. These yellow journo hit pieces are just the example of willful pig ignorance, and geopolitical, cultural, and historical illiteracy that is needed to instantly discount them — even two centuries later.

    They simply don’t get it, and they never will. That’s fine with me, just so long as they stay in their lane and mind their own fucking business.

    • If they come over here they damned well better NOT “stay in their own lane”. They can’t even get that right.

  49. That did feature a lot of full-auto fire, didn’t it?

    So, now that there is a circuit split on “assault weapons bans,” is the NRA going to have to get honest and put its cards on the table about full auto?

    If it is permissible to ban post-1986 NFA machine guns under the Second Amendment — and the NRA has never seriously disputed that proposition — how is it not permissible to ban semi-auto knockoffs of full-auto weapons, especially when they are tricked out with slide-fire stocks or Third-Mode-Reset (3MR) triggers?

    A lot of people still have a hard time breathing through their nose when they contemplate noobs failing to comprehend the distinction between true full-auto on one hand and fast-as-you-can-squeeze-the-trigger semi-auto on the other hand. Okay, then, for purposes of the Second Amendment, what’s the difference?

    I suspect most people on this site would say, in the confines of a comment section, that there shouldn’t be a difference. Okay, then: when do we start saying so out loud? How much do we have to “finesse” the truth about semi-auto firepower in the Second Amendment debate, and for how long?

    How lethal is “The Truth About Guns” that fire full-auto, compared to their semi-auto-only clones, to arguments against assault weapons bans?

  52. I don’t “love” guns. I enjoy owning and using them, same as I enjoy owning/using a nice house, a nice car, a quality pocket knife, a good computer, a big screen TV, a nice RC helicopter, an excellent smart phone, etc., etc.
    I have them because I can and have the freedom to do so. Period. If anyone doesn’t “get it” then, just like a neutered dog, you never will get it.

  53. Firearms:

    -are cheaper than automobiles
    -are safer than automobiles
    -protect and serve
    -are great stores of value
    -require relatively little space
    -provide tons of fun
    -are incredibly useful
    -are great at pissing off globalists when in the hands of normal citizens
    -serve as cruise control for cool

  55. The film leaves British (and world) viewers with the impression that the average American owns a fully-automatic weapon.

    Thats Greattt! let them think that. That way no other country will wanna “F” with us.

  57. Lots of English people in both target and hunting clubs I’m in here in Australia. Talked to one yesterday about .22 he is giving his son for 12th birthday. Which is legal here

    They all dispair at their insane politically correct country. Too hard to change so they left
    Possibly not helped by many of the brave people being killed in the two world wars

  58. One of the by-products of reading a couple-hundred international military history books over the years has been learning just how much of an anomaly American beliefs in freedom and liberty truly are. People all over the world have been conditioned to unquestioningly accept a level of state involvement/meddling in daily life that, until recently, was looked upon with horror and disgust by the vast majority of the American public.

    Forget about guns. If you want to see the starkest contrast in thoughts on liberty, start a conversation with a European about self-defense, especially the UK types. They will bend over backwards in their honest-to-god attempt at convincing you that violent criminals are somehow still your equals, and that to shoot/stab/golf-club in defense of self or your loved ones somehow makes you just as guilty as the degenerate thug who just broke into your house. Then again, a lot of foreigners can’t say they own a house and the plot of land it stands on either. What does that tell you about centuries of state-sponsored social engineering outside the U.S.?

  59. Meanwhile, let’s set Great Britain’s hoplohobia’s harridans straight. Why do Americans love their guns?
    Because Americans proved them so effective in killing British occupational soldiers in two wars?

  60. I do love my guns including the ones equipped with giggle switches. I don’t care what any one thinks about that. I challenge anyone to fire a FA Uzi, Thompson, M16, etc. and not have a smile on their face.

  61. Guns are fun!!!! Don’t need another reason.
    Well maybe there is another. We have them and YOU don’t over there.

  62. Yes, we must be “obsessed” with firearms. It can’t just be about protecting a right. Are we “obsessed” with privacy? “Obsessed” with free speech?

  63. We like our guns because, as a Vietnam vet once told me his sentiment regarding an attack against him, “If you mess with me, I will f— you blue!”

  67. Having firearms means you have freedom. The freedom concept is alien to most people in the UK. And unfortunately many Americans have lost the concept of freedom also.
    Yes guns are fun to shoot. But when I think of black American history, owning guns means freedom to me.

  68. I will just say its not the guns I love so much. I love the CHOICE! It is not bad being one of the minority on the planet with the choice to decide if I want to defend myself or depend on someone else to do it for me. I choose not to wait 12 minutes for the cop to show up. And then run a 35% chance they will shoot my dog or a family member. Stop saying we just love guns, we love freedom! That is the freedom to choose for ourselves how we want to run our individual households, family, or selves in this life. I am pretty sure my forefathers begain leaving england in the late 1600s to escape the “one-size-fits-all”, “cookie-cutter”, “whats good for me is good for you” mentality you still cling to in england. Individual choice, and the ability to take responsibility for myself is what I love.

  69. For the moment they are against gun owner. After they are done with us it’ll be motorbikes, drones, alcohol, sugar, etc, etc.

    These noisy anti-gun activists feel they have the right to dictate to everyone. We must all keep up the fight. I wish the NRA would try to do a global thing where we could pool our forces against anti-gunners.

    As an ex-UK person I know that the majority just can’t see the fun to be had or the comfort of security.

    Just remind them that the greatest mas murderers were the states that banned guns, Russia, China, Germany and others.

    Keep up the fight my good American friends and also enjoy the sport – like I do….

  70. Beauty and Utility.

    I have an “appreciation” for my tools, but I do not “love” my tools.

    I have an appreciation based on their beauty and utility.

    What I do appreciate about my gun is its ability to fend off “Barbarians at the gates” of my castle.

    If I chose to use Improvised Devices that would do a better job, I might use them instead.

    If I could appreciate any of my tools for their beauty, that would be my knives.
    I don’t appreciate my pliers for their beauty, but I can do a whole lot more
    damage with a pair of pliers that knife.
    I can pull your skin and ears off, break your fingers, and your pluck your eyeballs out more
    effectively than I can with knife.
    Pliers are legal every state and you don’t need a license, training, or a permit.
    Some personal business post No Guns or No Weapons signs, but I haven’t seen any body
    post No Pliers signs. Have you?
    Well except court houses and airplanes.

  71. I am reminded of..Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I “love” the bomb and my gun because I truly love my liberty and need the best tools available to ensure it. No apology.

  72. Too many comments to read….

    For balance, they should have included me having a blast my my little Ruger Bearcat shooting .22 short at old loaves of bread hung from a tree branch.

  73. America’s version of Darts… just without pints of Fullers & we usually don’t practice in pubs.

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