About ten years ago, while serving in the Marine Corps, I observed a conversation between one of my colleagues from a U.S. Southern state and an international military officer on the issue of gun ownership in America. The question was posed: Why do Americans love guns so much? Military officers from other countries also joined in the conversation, and each discussed how their respective countries viewed and addressed gun ownership and their personal perspectives on gun ownership and violence in the United States. At the end of the discussion, my American colleague’s bottom line was that “we have the absolute right to bear arms because it is codified in our Constitution.” His argument, in part, resonated with me because this fact was inculcated into my belief system. I come from a military family from the Southern United States, spent many years in the Marine Corps, and was a gun owner myself at that time.
Alisa Wiles (Wed,) studied this question.