Out of interest, are there any American blues here who actually own guns? If so, how old where you when you got your first? Have you ever had to use it? Do you know anyone who's ever been hurt or lost their life to a gun?
The cultural differences are so stark, over here the idea of even seeing a gun with live rounds in it, in the flesh, gives me the willies. The only people who have them here seemingly are criminals or the police (serious SWAT team level, not street cops). If I found out someone I knew owned one I'd keep well away, they're very much taboo.
I bought a 9mm (legally) when I was about 22/23. After I got married the wife and I would go target shooting in the country a few times a year, When we had first child she said she wasn't comfortable having the gun in the house (guns safes are optional), so I sold it, no biggie. Never used besides shooting beer bottles, milk jugs and such.
Growing up in the South, I was around a lot people that had guns, hunting mainly. Deer hunting is huge in my part of the world, but I've never hunted. Not a moral thing, but it seems like a lot of work, and I prefer a burger or steak, and you don't have to hunt cows! Also my Dad was a paraplegic, so needless to say, I didn't grow up going out info fields or up in deer stands or duck blinds with him. He did have 2 pistols, and when I was about 13 or so, he taught me how to shoot them, clean them, but we only shot them out in the country a few times. To this day, most of the people that I know that own guns are actually hunters (but they may own pistols too). The only friends I have that actually have permits and carry guns on their person are police officers.
The only person I know hurt or killed was a friend from high school I played football and basketball with. He was killed in the line of duty about 11 years ago, sadly. Otherwise, luckily, I haven't ever had a friend or family member shot.
https://www.odmp.org/officer/18725-deputy-sheriff-kevin-carper
But yes, it is a HUGE cultural difference. They are significant differences in the US as well, in large part due to geography. I am in one of the most conservative parts of the US, lots of open land, where hunting is commonly passed down at a very early age, often as a rite of passage or sorts. That is a huge cultural difference than someone growing up in say, metro Pittsburgh. I am comfortable around guns, or shooting them and they don't make me nervous - but to be fair, the friends of mine that do own them are my age, 40-50ish level-headed types, not testosterone driven goofballs. But I don't really felt the need to own one or keep one around, so I don't.
