Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny93g
My extended family owns lots of guns. They hunt alot as the live up north. I've seen them many times, visits, and all that. I've never seen a gun in my life....
I'm not trying to draw any conclusions either, but it's just not a regular part of life here. It's not on my mind. It's not even an afterthought.
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I think you touch on something important: mindset. For whatever reason, in Canada we don't have a strong revolutionary mindset, nor a strong self-defense mindset. It's never seriously crossed my mind to own a gun for protection, or that I might want to own one in case my government needs a reminder that it works for me. I know people who own guns (including my father), but they are strictly hunting rifles, for hunting. I don't know anyone that owns a handgun or some AR-15 or whatever. In those times when I lie awake and think about what I might do in the case of an intruder, my mind goes to blunt objects like bats or hockey sticks, and those seem sufficient. Heck, even our old Prime Minister Jean Chretien defended himself from a home intruder with a stone sculpture.
In America the mindset is very different. The relationship with the government appears to be far more antagonistic, and the undercurrent of possible/inevitable revolution seems ever present. It's not as hard to understand why someone might feel a need or desire to own weapons that may help to defend larger-than-self values that they see at risk of infringement. It's less clear to me why the self-defense mindset also appears to be more prolific and oriented towards guns, but as an outsider it does seem clear that it is at a whole different level.