If I may interject momentarily with my own observations of American gun ownership.
Oddbod, like myself, picks his shooting companions. My own are either serving or former military or police as I like their company and on a range they have some range discipline and can actually shoot reasonably well.
Oddbods companions, being professional men, can afford their hobby and both own and shoot as Ocbod has attested many times with his mention of attending three gun competitions in the company of his muckers.
I was bought up into the British mentality of gun ownership both as a civvy and as a working plod. I knew who would be granted a "ticket" and who would not be and wether their behaviour and conduct would allow their continued enjoyment of gun ownership. If I apply those same British principles in the US I actually think that possibly 20% - 30% of those that I have seen in possession of firearms would actually be allowed to own them.
Whilst my shooting companions are educated many of the people I see stroking guns in gun shops are so dimwitted I understand why velcro shoes were invented. I have seen and been spoken to, not by my initiation you understand, by people who would possibly marry their cousin - best portrayed on that film Deliverance.
There is also a group, a largeish group, who wear tinfoil hats and speak of "preparing for when the gubmint takes over". This group sweeps across the whole of septic society regardless of who is president, which party is power or wether it is christmas or halloween, it affects everyone from truck drivers to brain surgeons. In my opinion its an excuse to buy guns, lots of guns.
One thing I have noticed, regardless of the nice little statistically produced table shown above: When I lived in Florida, guns were fine, everyone had at least one gun, every granny attended a concealed carry licence class and tucked a .38 special in their handbag. The upshot was that in the town I lived in during the 2.5 years I was there the monthly average for burglaries was 9 a month, nine.
They have the same approach to guns in most of the southern and western states and even some of the central and north western states. ****, in Texas if you play road rage you may just get shot, fact. So everyone drives nicely.
Now up here where I live now, in the tri-state area - thats NY state, Pennsylvania and New Jersey - if you so much as mention the word "gun" you get looked at like you are some kind of psychopath. People who do shoot are a tad more discreet about it than elsewhere in the USA, California is the same apparently. In total contrast to down south I have met many, many people up here in the North east who have never touched, held, fired or even bloody well seen a privately owned firearm. In many places it is even against the law to shoot an airsoft pistol in the back garden.
Up here in the North East I too do not tell people I own guns or that I shoot.
I'm not a shrink, or a sociologist but I like people watching and the attitudes and approaches to guns a totally different in the more cosmopolitan areas of the US to the more far flung and rural areas. Look at north Philly, 10,000 murders in ten years, that does'nt happen down south or out west......'cos you never know if the biff you are going to mug has a gun, so you don't. Most of the trouble we used to hear about in Florida was from northerners that had recently come down and tried it on. A bit like a scouser doing a burglary in Hertfordshire and finding a homeowner with a Glock.
They are not all mad, not all bad, there are some sensible ones, clever ones even.
