gunsynd: Our picture is Rednecks and Hillbillies runnin' around with guns,sort of like the Clampets...Deliverence
Don't take offence yankee's :-)
CarrionCrow: That's part of it, but there's more to the whole thing than that.
In no small part, there's this weird, "some day our government's going to do something we hate so much that we can't stand for it, so as long as we've got our guns in our closets we'll be able to fight back" mentality going on.
Course, and again, a lot of people don't have the self-awareness to even be honest with themselves about their motivations about things, not to mention the reality of the situation.
The government here has tanks, bombers and drones that can fire missiles to incinerate your silly ass and be gone without you noticing anything but "Oh my, it sure did get hot and full of shrapnel in here in a hurry. Now where did my limbs go?" before you bleed out and die.
And yet, people still have this collective psychotic delusion that they and their drinking buddies will somehow repel all that, so long as they have their guns.
They equate guns with freedom, rather than realizing that freedom is ultimately one big-assed illusion from top to bottom, inside and out.
In the end, you have the freedom to shut up, work a job that you hate so you don't end up on the street, and keep your fingers crossed 24 hours a day for 50 years that the government manages to not piss away what you've given them to have some kind of retirement before you're too old to be able to use it, or that some corrupt bank or business asshole doesn't decide to rob your retirement fund and get a slap on the wrist while you get left with nothing.
That's it.
And that's assuming you can even get some kind of job to begin with.
On the subject, a very wise person once said in the face of others telling him that living in the U.S. gave him the freedom to stand on stage and say what he wants to say.
His response? "
NO, a voicebox gives me the freedom to stand on stage and say what I want to say. It's got nothing to do with America."
(Also, fair warning, the video I just linked is more than a little NSFW, for multiple reasons. Unless you're self-employed or have an amazingly cool boss, don't watch this one at work.)