Why are some Americans so attached to firearms?

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The gun control debate is back in the spotlight after 49 people were gunned down at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.

The big question many Canadians have is why are some Americans are so obsessed with firearms?

A Canadian journalist who has lived and worked in the U.S. for decades is giving us some perspective.

Ali Velshi says a big part of the issue is interpretation of the Second Amendment.

“Which many people think was meant to allow for a militia to be formed to fight off sort of oppression or the British. But Supreme Courts in the United States have ruled that it does generally speaking, allow for people to carry a gun on their person. It is not clear the degree to which states and municipalities can regulate that and many states and municipalities do regulate it, but I would say that over the last couple of decades, there’s been a move towards greater freedom in terms of carrying a gun. So, it’s two issues: there’s the preponderance of guns and there are many of them, there are apparently many more guns owned in the United States than there are people, and the issue of whether or not there should be a right to carry a gun.”

He points out a lot of Americans actually have very similar views to our own.

“There are many Americans who understand and like the right to bear arms in order to protect themselves against coercion from government, but they don’t think that that means that individual civilians should carry arms. It’s the impression I get from many Canadians — and crime statistics bear out — that in countries that do not have arms readily available to civilians, there are fewer gun deaths, end of story. But Canada is a different story because it’s got a relatively porous border when it comes to guns, so, many of the gun deaths in Canadian cities are with guns that are bought illegally from the United States. A place like Australia, where it’s much harder to get those guns in, when they banned guns from civilian use, gun deaths went down dramatically.”

Velshi says a majority of deaths by guns in the U.S. are suicides, and most Americans support some method of reducing access to guns, particularly for people suffering from mental illness.

He points to the power of the National Rifle Association, saying it keeps the gun issue in the spotlight and peoples’ positions become hardened.

He adds where you are in the States makes a big difference.

For instance, in a northeastern state, or in lots of major cities where Canadians go, people don’t have guns.

In many border states, people have guns for hunting or for safety in isolated parts, while in the south, carrying them in urban and suburban areas is a way of life.