City person who spent much of teen years in rural Arkansas here: every family had a rifle; most had more than one.. (I mean, I'm sure that's not literally true. But it was what I expected.)
Most families hunted. Not so much for necessary food, but the local schools scheduled a day or two off at the beginning of turkey season and again for deer season, because failure to do so would result in ridiculous absentee levels during those weeks.
Kids thought of guns as potentially dangerous but very useful tools, like the big kitchen cleaver or an automobile. Were people accidentally killed with them? Sure, and that was a great sadness. Did some people get stupid or vengeful and use them to deliberately kill? Sure, but that's no reason to take them away from everyone else. Did kids misuse them? Sure, sometimes; some kids will misuse anything.
Banning guns is given about as much serious thought as banning cellphone use in the cities because of the accidents caused by txting while driving.
And until the dialogue about guns* acknowledges the drastically different circumstances between rural and urban settings, it's going to continue to go nowhere useful.
--- *And other weapons. Everyone had a pocketknife. I, a geeky, feminine, decidedly non-physically-oriented preteen & teenager, had a small folding pocketknife. An attempt to ban "weapons" at school would be met with about the same reaction as an announcement that the school was going to ban shoelaces.
no subject
Most families hunted. Not so much for necessary food, but the local schools scheduled a day or two off at the beginning of turkey season and again for deer season, because failure to do so would result in ridiculous absentee levels during those weeks.
Kids thought of guns as potentially dangerous but very useful tools, like the big kitchen cleaver or an automobile. Were people accidentally killed with them? Sure, and that was a great sadness. Did some people get stupid or vengeful and use them to deliberately kill? Sure, but that's no reason to take them away from everyone else. Did kids misuse them? Sure, sometimes; some kids will misuse anything.
Banning guns is given about as much serious thought as banning cellphone use in the cities because of the accidents caused by txting while driving.
And until the dialogue about guns* acknowledges the drastically different circumstances between rural and urban settings, it's going to continue to go nowhere useful.
---
*And other weapons. Everyone had a pocketknife. I, a geeky, feminine, decidedly non-physically-oriented preteen & teenager, had a small folding pocketknife. An attempt to ban "weapons" at school would be met with about the same reaction as an announcement that the school was going to ban shoelaces.