>>> rws at comedu.canberra.edu.au 10/20/00 01:17PM >>>
G'day Charles,
>CB: American gun culture is probably more related to the fact that the
>national territory was taken by forceful and violent conquest of the
>Indigenous Peoples.
By itself, I don't think that cuts the mustard, Charles.
((((((((
CB: Agree , Rob. Above was in response to the hypothesis that prisoner colonies spawned gun culture, and I am saying the above is more a factor than that.
I think the radical individualist anarchism of the young U.S. is a factor too,as you suggest. (Is this what is called overdetermined ? ). That's why the 2nd Amendment was put in the Constitution, as an individual right vis-a-vis the government. But most of the shooting Americans did was at Indians, not the gov'ment.
Anyway, this type of contradiction where freedom is combined with unfreedom - in this case, radical individualism yet racist imperialism - is the story of America , innit ?