So some Australians travel to the US and decide that “visiting some of these gun-loving towns is like stepping onto another planet.”

I’m not going to fisk this article, because what would be the point.  I’m a little tired of point by point arguments against Australians, or Canadians, or Brits as to why Americans and non-Americans can’t see eye-to-eye on the issue of gun safety and how Americans just can’t seem to get with the rest of the world on this.

Here is the one thing that non-Americans (and even some Americans) need to understand.

The Deceleration of Independence was ratified on July 4, 1776.  At that moment, every resident of the Colonies with loyalty to America became a citizen of these United States.

Until 1949, there was not really such a thing as a “British Citizen,” every resident of the United Kingdom was a British Subject.  A Subject.  Let that sink in for a second… a Subject.  Even today in the UK, the British still haven’t figured out what they are.  Canadians and New Zealanders were Subjects of the Crown until 1977 with the passage of the Canadian and New Zealand Citizenship Acts.  Australians were Subjects of the Crown until 1984 with the passage of the Australian Citizenship Amendment Act.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word Subject as “Under the control or domination of (another ruler, country, or government),” the classical definition being “under the dominion of a monarch.”

Nearly 240 years of being citizens and not subjects have given most Americans a healthy disrespect for overbearing authority.  For the most part, we don’t like politicians trying to micromanage our lives.  We don’t like bullies in uniform.  We don’t like people telling us what to do, what to think, and how to live.  When some elected narcissistic tells us we can’t buy a 20 oz of our favorite sparkling beverage, we tell him to “get bent” and that said narcissist can stick his law someplace that wont be seen until his next colonoscopy.

And yes, there are plenty Americans who’d have no moral qualms against shooting a politician to preserve the sacred right of being able to deep fry a donut in trans fats.

You can take my deep fried Snickers bar when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

Americans’ favorite movies mostly involve some Regular Joe having to kill his way through an oppressive government for freedom.  We really don’t care what the contrived reason is – invasion by a totalitarian regime (Red Dawn), corrupt backwoods sheriff (First Blood), or space opera Planetary Alliance (Serenity) – nothing makes Americans stop stuffing their faces with popcorn and cheer like watching some nameless government stooge  get turned into pink mist by the patriotic hero’s bullet.

The growing gun rights movement is a direct result of the growing onerous and burdensome expansion of government power.  Every time some politician assumes a little more power, the people buy a few million more guns.

That is why they don’t “get” us.  There are a lot of Americans who grew up saying “this is a free country and I can do what I want” and still believe it.  Guns are a part of that.  The motto of this country is e pluribus unum only because F*ck you and get off my lawn wouldn’t look classy on the money.

The ability and the desire of the people to push back is ingrained in us in a way no one, one generation removed from being a subject, would understand.  Sure, we’d like it if there was less crime and fewer total nut jobs.  But were not going to give up our gun rights just because it’s what the historically oppressed think we should.  We are citizens, not subjects.