I'm starting to think the the guns themselves are just a symptom

[Fumesucker]

It's what it took in terms of fear generating propaganda to get us to buy so many guns in the first place that is the real problem.

What we are seeing today is the culmination of a long strategy by the gun makers to maintain profitability in the face of a shrinking customer base.

If you don't have more customers to sell to then you have to sell more units to the customers you do have in order to maintain profitability and generate value for the shareholders.

The gun manufacturers have sold more guns to fewer customers by scaring the crap out of those customers with a decades long propaganda campaign designed by top professionals in the field of advertising and psychology. Spend a week uncritically listening to right wing talk radio and watching Fox and you'll be terrified the thugs are about to break down your door.

Pontius Pilate had the excuse the crowd was howling for Jesus' blood right outside his door, the gun manufacturers made the decisions they did strictly for profit, they and their enablers will never be able to wash the blood of innocents from them.

[upaloopa]

1. They run their themselves out of ammunition at the gun stores and blame it on Obama wanting

to take away their fun when all the while they are being played like a fiddle buy the gun and ammo manufacturers.

It takes some kind of stupid to be suckered like that!

[bongbong]

2. The NRA has to ramp up the fear

Consider the NRA the marketing arm of the gun industry, much like Fox "news" is the marketing arm of the GOP.

Guns don't wear out, except in the extremely rare cases where they are used a lot, or in the less rare - but still pretty rare cases - where they're neglected enough to rust to uselessness. There's already enough out there to arm every American. Kinda like the US weapons industry has enough product to supply 20 America-sized countries....

If you're a gun maker, you HAVE to keep the fear amped up, so that the fear-filled people will buy more and more guns. It's sad to read the rationale that mentally-ill people spout off to justify their gun obsession or their "need" for 5, 10, 20, or more guns.

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. It's about the rampant paranoia in this country.

And the Limbaugh's, Becks, Hannitys, Boehners, etc that feed it.

[renie408]

4. Conservatives already live in a scarier world. That's why they are conservative.

I am 48 years old. I have a hard physical, outdoor job. At different points in my life, I have lived or worked around some pretty creepy people. I have lived out in the country and at one point, for four years, we lived with the most violent housing development in our town on the other side of our privacy fence (historic district. Fell in love with the house, didn't pay attention to what was behind it. Didn't bother to look over the privacy fence until AFTER we had been in the house for three weeks and heard the first shooting.)

I have never, not once, felt the need for a gun. There has never been a situation in my life, including the time two guys holding big, fat chains stopped me and my husband and threatened him that I have thought to myself, "Gee, if I only had a gun." Well, except when I get stuck behind about 45 bicyclists and I am trying to get to work. But that is probably the main reason I shouldn't have a gun.

I have friends who have never had a bad thing happen to them. They live in nice suburban homes and live nice suburban lives. They have handguns galore. They are convinced that they need those guns for their own protection. There is no amount of statistics, no amount of news stories highlighting the dangers of gun ownership...NOTHING that will change their minds that the world is a horribly dangerous place and they need their guns.

It is just bizarre to me. I do not need a gun to feel safe or to bolster my ego or to feel better about me. I may be killed in a home invasion. It could happen. But I am intelligent enough to know that my odds of surviving a violent confrontation actually go DOWN if I own a gun. Why other people don't get that, I have no idea.

We have dogs. Lots of big dogs. They are a far better deterrent than any gun.

[Fumesucker]

5. I don't think Americans are unique or special

Conservatives in other nations seem to be able to get along without the need for guns, it's the propaganda that makes America special in that regard, IMO.

[renie408]

6. But American conservatives have easy access to guns and a culture which

tells them that owning a gun makes them safe, big and BAD.

Yes, the propaganda doesn't help, but without a gun store on every corner and gun shows where you can buy guns without even a background check, it doesn't matter how much propaganda is out there.