Courtesy of Scientific American:
Since the 2008 election of President Obama, the number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. has tripled, while imports have doubled. This doesn’t mean more households have guns than ever before—that percentage has stayed fairly steady for decades. Rather, more guns are being stockpiled by a small number of individuals. Three percent of the population now owns half of the country’s firearms, says a recent, definitive study from the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University.
So, who is buying all these guns—and why?
The short, broad-brush answer to the first part of that question is this: men, who on average possess almost twice the number of guns female owners do. But not all men. Some groups of men are much more avid gun consumers than others. The American citizen most likely to own a gun is a white male—but not just any white guy. According to a growing number of scientific studies, the kind of man who stockpiles weapons or applies for a concealed-carry license meets a very specific profile.
These are men who are anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market, and beset by racial fears. They tend to be less educated. For the most part, they don’t appear to be religious—and, suggests one study, faith seems to reduce their attachment to guns. In fact, stockpiling guns seems to be a symptom of a much deeper crisis in meaning and purpose in their lives. Taken together, these studies describe a population that is struggling to find a new story—one in which they are once again the heroes.
But wait, there's more.
When Northland College sociologist Angela Stroud studied applications for licenses to carry concealed firearms in Texas, which exploded after President Obama was elected, she found applicants were overwhelmingly dominated by white men. In interviews, they told her that they wanted to protect themselves and the people they love.
“When men became fathers or got married, they started to feel very vulnerable, like they couldn’t protect families,” she says. “For them, owning a weapon is part of what it means to be a good husband a good father.” That meaning is “rooted in fear and vulnerability—very motivating emotions.”
But Stroud also discovered another motivation: racial anxiety. “A lot of people talked about how important Obama was to get a concealed-carry license: ‘He’s for free health care, he’s for welfare.’ They were asking, ‘Whatever happened to hard work?’” Obama’s presidency, they feared, would empower minorities to threaten their property and families.
Well that helps to explain a lot of things.
Why gun sales spiked during Obama's presidency.
Why so many mass shooters are white males.
And why Trump embraced the NRA so hard during the run up to the election.
Clearly this is a group of dimwitted cowards who substitute gun ownership for their perceived inadequacies, and voted for a thrice married bullshit artist to help protect them from the brown people.
Jesus Christ! They are not only "deplorable" they're pathetic.
I live and work in a pure red southern state. I’m liberal, progressive and keep my views to myself, until I really know who I’m talking to. There are very uneducated white males (and females) all over the place and believe me, they are pro-guns, and pro-trump. They scare me! They fear the educated.
ReplyDeleteI saw their fathers and grandfathers in the workplace while I did QC/QA. Simple men who nonetheless made good money and had LOTS of kids. Those jobs are gone and I'm sure they're anxious. Plus, they've always heard they could be president, but that's not going to happen either. Sometimes they explode.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's the thing, no guns handy? Their explosions are frightening and horrid to their families. Nut most often, it is soemthing that can be repaired with some spackle or (sadly) stitches at the ER and a good divorce lawyer or counseling. But it isn't fatal to dozens of innocent bystanders, and that's the difference
Delete@ 4:29 AM - Unfortunately, you live in a sick & violent society. Be careful, be very careful; these individuals are dangerous when confronted with the truth.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, and they've found their "savior" in dRumpf who makes their ignorance and hatred legit.
DeleteI will never be scared of them.
"Consider the source."
Little men with huge complexes. They come in all kinds, sizes, and colors. Those men and non thinking women are afraid. They are afraid of the others, they are afraid. When you are ignorant you cannot understand or rationalize a big beautiful world. They fear and the delusion is overwhelming. "The gun" makes them feel safe and strong. When you are ignorant and afraid you seek out those like you. They will perish in their own paranoid delusional thoughts. We see examples in all dictators. We see examples in the NRA. We see them, we know them and watch them daily fail and fall as the little men and women that they are. Weak, afraid and failures as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters and as humans. They are afraid of something they cannot change nor accept and too stupid to know it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will add GOD into the mix of that, 5:17 AM. As they claim their Bible, if He has their back, why do they walk in fear?
DeleteTotally off-topic, but I have to share that I'm chuckling over the fact that Sarah Palin flew all the way to Florida to give a speech and Trump isn't even going to be there. He stayed in Washington this week-end.
ReplyDeleteAnd junior was a bigger hit than she was by just showing up. At least she had her shield Piper to protect her. hahaha She is SO pathetic.
DeleteI just scanned the Wash. Post article about Sarah's appearance at the event. She told people that "just days ago" she was plowing snow and making caribou stew. Has it been snowing much in her part of Alaska? New England has had lots of snow in the past two weeks and our snow total has inched up closer to average this month but it's not as harsh a winter as we've had in recent years.
DeleteAlso during her speech, when she started to try to talk policy (not something that comes easily to either Palin or trump), her audience turned to their meals and to one another for conversation with such enthusiasm that Palin had to remonstrate with them. She must have been furious when she left the podium.
Beaglemom
O/T again. I forgot to add that Sarah Palin was also out "chopping wood" just a few days before descending on Florida.
DeleteAlso, trump was not in attendance. Now was the Florida governor who gave the event a pass because of the pedestrian bridge that collapsed in Miami. Personally I don't see the connection but suddenly Florida politicians are full of the milk of human kindness or something.
Beaglemom
Beaglemom - She chopped off TAWD's balls long ago.
DeleteHoopla reMon$tratEr Kkkalin
DeleteBeaglemom - as believable as her yarn about mowing the lawn with Trig strapped to her back. I howled at that one; of course she did.
DeleteHOly shit - that was a description as if they knew him of the resident gun nut in my extended family which I no longer assoicate with. We'll call him Ron.
ReplyDeleteROn is 40 soemthing, child of white flight parents whose house in the inner ring 'burb was once burglarized. Mother was an extreme overprotective, a certificable mental case later found to have a form of early Alzheimers - she saw danger to her kids in everything from a butter knife to riding a bike and would pace in fornt of the window if they were out of her sight, even with a trusted aunt or uncle for a walk around the block. Ron
s father was a technphobe who had had a good job but lost it because he refused to learn to do his work with a computer.The father has waorked losign ground mimimum wage jobs ever since.
Ron still lives at home, but is as racist as they come, although dad now has a black girlfriend, he's refused to ever even share a meal with her. Strangely, he, himself dates a Hispanic woman. Stockpiles weapons (mostly assault rifles) and has a concealed carry, and claims he has them for "protection" ya da ya da. Photos all over his fb page.
I figure the next I'll hear of him is when he's charged in some type of assault, or domestic.
OT: Seems $arah was a dud at Mar-A-Lago. Reports saying attendees started talking amongst themselves about 1/4 into her speech, amounting to a dull roar, to where she said, "I wish you guys would pay attention to what I'm saying."
ReplyDeleteLMAO
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/12/sarah-palin-family-alaska-brawl-reports
Delete"I wish you guys would PAY attention to what I AM saying."
'Police confirm ‘verbal and physical altercation’ took place outside house party in Anchorage, where former governor Sarah Palin was reported to have shouted: ‘Do you know who I AM?’
"Palin herself got in on the action, ABC News reported in an interview with a party attendee, who quoted the former governor as screaming at unknown combatants: “Do you know who I am?!”"
"The owner of the house gets involved, and he probably wished he hadn’t. At this point, he’s up against nearly the whole Palin tribe: Palin women screaming. Palin men thumping their chests. Word is that [daughter] Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed repeatedly."
$750 a pop for the VIP reception poolside. "We got to meet her!" $350 a pop dinner, "oh STFU!"
DeleteI heard the same. She's too stupid to realize what she is saying is argle- bargle and folks tune her out. She is a yapping ninny.
DeleteI have worked with several people who did not have a well rounded education in high school, married HS grads or people with a GED who worked in factory jobs. Some were raised in small towns or outside suburbs but did not get “to town” but twice a year. I understand they grew up to only know what they know and education disdained. Yes, they have many guns and some stockpiled them because of the black man Obama.
ReplyDeleteTrump’s calculation to push their fear buttons served him well. Those who were raised in a low to anti education bubble, have not traveled are terrified of “foreigners” and blacks. People fear the unknown and do not have a cognitive check and balance information from reading, courses or even museums to have been exposed to cultural practices around the world or even what mankind did from when they believe God created the earth.
I recall Mike Huckabee ranting about “those” Europeans at 2008 Republican convention saying BS.
Yikes, I am going on a cruise with two people who are terrified to get off the ship at Carribean islands because of fear of foreigners they will be murdered or worse. They will only go on a booked excursion.
A college educated acquaintance raised in a rural area who’s father was a radiologist recently told me we do not have room for more foreigners here. Then she added they seem to think our country will make their lives better....well, uh, maybe things are bad where they come from....I don’t know...”. OMG this is a person who chooses ignorance! Also a person who eats Trump red meat that Mexicans come here to rape, steal and distribute drugs and murder. Trump sized up his marks well manipulating their fears.
ReplyDeleteGoing to my last #RayCray appt for breast cancer, an older truck in the hospital parking lot. Windshield cracked big time, NRA sticker back window, and two huge American flags mounted in the back truck bed.
DeleteI sincerely doubt that any of these people have one clue how stupid they look.
The “we don’t have room here” for immigrants excuse is asinine. First of all, in terms of land area, the United States is HUGE. I believe we’re the 3rd or 4th largest country in the world by land mass.
DeleteSome cities seem packed and overflowing. But there’s another side to America. I live in a more rural area and it is suffering from depopulation. It’s affecting the local school, and small businesses. Then county and community resources get cut because of the lack of people, which exacerbates the problem.
Immigrants are much more likely to open their own businesses than those of us born here. There are plenty of dying rural communities around this country that may be revived by having new people moving in. They bring in a fresh new culture and an influx of kids to fill the local schools, and working-age adults and the labor and capital that would help the local economy.
6:55 AM - 'Murikkka.
Delete@7:52AM 4 6:55am AMERICA FUCKYA
Deletehttps://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/jeb-bush-america?utm_term=.ujVyx6B9b#.prGE0LnjV
'We have no future':
DeleteFleeing Putin's Ru$$ia for FREEDOM"
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/17/europe/russian-election-latvia-intl/index.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sex-the-church-and-human-trafficking-on-the-mafia-coast?ref=home
Delete"While men blithely rationalize prostitution in Italy, there is little thought for the Nigerian women caught up in the sex-slave racket behind this dirty business." {Worldwide}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le7cJ_SItO0
Delete'Eminem White America (Uncensored)'
"t's hilarious to see all of these white supremacists in these comments even though this song is literally about how they fucking suck, nuance is a beautiful thing."
OT?: Cambridge Analytica! 185X more!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trump-campaign-data-operation-exploited-50-million-facebook-accounts-catering-users-inner-demons-whistleblower/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election?CMP=share_btn_tw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/facebook-bans-trump-campaign-data-firm-cambridge-analytica-violating-user-privacy/
OT?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/2018/3/16/17124288/mattis-theranos-board-trump
"Mattis not only served on Theranos’s board during some of the years it was perpetrating the fraud after he retired from US military service, but he earlier served as a key advocate of putting the company’s technology (technology that was, to be clear, fake) to use inside the military while he was still serving as a general. Holmes is settling the case, paying a $500,000 fee and accepting various other penalties"
http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/technology/elizabeth-holmes-theranos/index.html
Parkland Shooting Survivor Calls Out Lawmakers In Chilling NRA-Style Ad
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/parkland-shooting-survivor-nra-style-ad_us_5aacce18e4b0337adf83f531
It has been a difficult 10yrs. Fox no news stole friends and family from us. They continue today. The FCC have not removed fox no news from the airwaves. Corporations like facebook and twitter have spread the fox no news insanity that we face today. Watching those friends and family descend into hateful delusional behavior has been heartbreaking. Relationships are broken due to actions of KGB putin and fox no news helping to pollute citizens around the world. Several to blame, facebook, twitter, security programs, lousy actors and players. Where is Edward snowden and what part did he play for putin?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election?CMP=share_btn_tw
Delete50MILLION+
Stormy Danials mother is a Trump C*nt!
ReplyDelete“If Mr. Trump runs four more times, I would vote for him every time,” the porn star’s mother said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stormy-daniels-parents-trump-fans_us_5aac48f4e4b0337adf83d20b
Trump’s Legal Team Says It Can Sue Stormy Daniels For $20 Million
ReplyDeleteTrump enters the case for the first time, represented by the lawyer who handled Hulk Hogan’s sex tape lawsuit.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-lawyers-move-stormy-daniel-suit-to-federal-court_us_5aac5ac1e4b0c33361b0871b
Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer Says Some of What Daniels Alleges Occurred During the Trump Presidency
Deletehttps://www.mediaite.com/tv/stormy-daniels-lawyer-says-some-of-what-daniels-alleges-occurred-during-the-trump-presidency/
‘When the Lights are Gone…’: Michael Cohen’s Attorney Promises Consequences If Stormy Daniels Talks (WATCH)
Deletehttps://lawandcrime.com/exclusive/when-the-lights-are-gone-michael-cohens-attorney-threatens-stormy-daniels-if-she-talks/
@819 " when the lights are gone and the cameras are off, and we all can go on with our lives, just know that this violation is blatant, and this violation . . . there will be justice, because HE will go after EVERY SINGLE PENNY. HE will not rest until HE COLLECT$ millions of dollars in liquidated damages and punitive damages."
DeleteThey aren't men. They are frightened little boys in adult bodies. The level of ignorance is staggering. Their thinking is distorted by the propaganda they don't realize is propaganda. They trust hucksters and charlatans as a source of 'news'.
ReplyDeletegreat cartoon.
ReplyDelete