[quote=squat300] the power of america’s stable institutions have a heck of a lot more to do with the stability of the govt that the ak-47 in some dude’s closet with a blood splatter pattern pro gun tshirt[/quote]
Yeah, right. The power of “institutions”. This government structure is beginning to resemble an oppressive one.
With near continuous surveillance, tracking and a very cooperative media, we are pretty much a police state where the big guy will tell us what to think. All this is paid for from the extortion in the name of taxes for programs/wars we don’t really need.
The only difference here is unlike europe and other so-called democracies, the government can go only so far before the heavily armed citizenry pushes back.
We have seen arms control advocates use arguments from “Americans are violent people” to exceptionalism (we have better institutions, or maybe we are simply better than others). Why is it so hard to see that we are just like everybody else except for the 2nd amendment and that makes all the difference in how we want to govern ourselves?