I can be as parochial as any of you. Also very Nationalistic about Cyprus too.
But who are we kidding? We are only kidding ourselves when you are delusional enough to say things like the USA is a cesspit. That you need a gun for protection. Protection from what exactly? The boogey man? Not many boogey men in the USA. Yeh there are some gangs in certain areas which do have guns and you do need to watch your back in certain places and not do stupid things like walk down unprotected and poorly lit lanes, but generally, it isn't any different to the walled city of Nicosia at night with all the illegal immigrants from who knows where.
And you don't need to have a gun in the US for protection.
Gun culture in the US is something that has been a constant since the inception. Why? because Americans do not trust big Government. They believe guns is their God given right and that they should be able to defend their homes, and even take up arms against their Government if required. They are so big on their Bill of Rights, Freedom of the Press (first amendment) and second amendment which allows them the right to bear arms.
I don't really support their gun culture but I do understand their psyche. I can understand that Governments are NOT to be trusted. Germany had Hitler, and you just never know what can happen one day and I can understand the notion that the people are entitled to their arms and guns.
But I also believe the Americans can do better and perhaps not ban people from their guns but make access to guns and buying them a bit harder rather than just being able to go to a Gun Shop with your ID and buy any weapon you like. They can introduce rules such as prohibiting people with violent crime convictions from having guns for a minimum of 10 years. They can make membership at the local gun club mandatory and a requirement that prospective gun owners be vouched for by other members of the club. They van make rules about the storage of these weapons and so on.
All areas that can be looked at. But it would be a brave POTUS that goes there that is for sure, because the NRA is huge. Probably only the democrats can do it because they would lose the least amount of voters. The Republicans would commit suicide by even going there.
Yes it is a bad side of the USA but it is also a very powerful side to what the USA stands for. No country in the world has a Bill of Rights like the USA. No citizen in the world has protected rights like the citizens of the USA do.
Here is the Second Amendment of the US Constitution:
A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.Look at how powerful this statement is and try to understand how it came to be part of their Constitution. Americans will die for Their Bill of Rights.
They equate their entire
FREEDOM with the right to have arms, and that this civil militia is an important part of their
FREE STATE. I mean WOW! How can you just come along and withdraw this amendment? You would be asking for trouble and bloodshed on the streets. The Americans may see it as a winding back of their very liberty.
https://nccs.net/blogs/americas-foundin ... ments-1-10Now I ask this. Do Europeans have these Constitutional Protections? Do they have a Bill of Rights? Do you have this in Cyprus? We don't even have this in Australia and that is the truth.
As such, they have the least totalitarian or authoritarian Government on the planet. Who can deny that? No one can!
You grow up at school in fraternities where school elections are a huge thing and take up a lot of time, energy and money so you can see how seriously they take their democratic processes from a very young age. That is one thing they are very deadly serious about. Also sport! And they are good at it too.