Wednesday, January 23, 2013

american myths exposed #412: all americans love guns

i, zerilda, am highly used to being made to answer for all of the things that happen in america that people outside america think are terrible, or at the very least, bizarre. however, most recently, i am surrounded by people who have kicked it up a notch. and i say to them:

what's more ridiculous - the thing you're questioning or the fact that you think all americans are exactly the same?

one thing i love about this country is that although i have repeatedly busted my eyeball sockets from rolling my eyes so much as a reaction to "all americans yadda yadda yadda" statements, i get free healthcare, so sign me up for more eye-socket surgery! and bring on that free post-op morphine...

eye-rolling statements resulting in said surgery:

all americans eat oversize cheeseburgers
all americans love country music
that's gonna be covered in a different post...
all americans love their guns
it's really surprising to me that i have been lumped into such a category, considering i never even saw a real gun until i was 14. that's amazing, considering:

i'm from a large, rectangle-shaped, western state...
my father was in the military...
my mother's second husband was a policeman...

but no, what my coworkers expect is that i am a little disgruntled because i got my guns taken (read: pried) off me when i landed at heathrow. they eventually find out i'm from a big, rectangle, western state, which convinces them that they should lock up their pets in the fall because i'm a'comin' with ma' shotgun and i gots to get some dinner!

now, whereas it is true that i descend from a long line of highly competent gun-toters, most notably my mother,
who could hit the back side of a prairie dog (not a pet) from a distance of 90 paces,
i personally suffered great shame and disgrace as a non-gun-toting future liberal.

additionally, i didn't realize until i was 20 that our dog was named after a specific type of gun. i just thought 'ruger' was my mother not knowing how to spell 'roger', but it was okay because the dog didn't really look like a 'roger'.

a further irony of our household was that although my parents are both extremely good shots, we were not even allowed to say the word "gun" in our house. we could call the dog, "c'm'ere, ruger," but we could not say "gosh, i'd really like a ruger for christmas," without being sent to our rooms for a week. we couldn't even say "i'll be a son of a gun," as a surprised reaction to something.

i am probably the only person from my home state who has never been on a hunting trip. i always got slightly nervous during "school hunting break" because i thought that if the school *knew* i hadn't gone hunting like everyone else, i'd get detention.

when i arrived in the uk, i first went to belfast. if i, like "all the gun-toting-americans," would have been exposed to even the smallest gun, i wouldn't have consistently soiled my pants when i walked through the streets, which, at the time, were patrolled with land-rovers pointing guns from the top.

but hey ho, i'm american, so of course, in the eyes of most people around me, i support the NRA, and i must also only like a movie if there is a relatively large death count in it.

but the truth is, i did not personally touch a gun until i was 42... in WALES.

a quick google search gives me the statistic that 47% of american households have guns. wow. less than half. admittedly a lot, however, in order for "all americans to love guns," shouldn't all americans *own* guns? they don't all own guns, ergo, they don't all love them. in FACT, quite a lot of us are opponents of gun ownership.

but please! by all means! keep trying to convince me how we americans are stupid for not properly regulating guns. it's so much fun for me to listen to. and in the back of my head, i will simultaneously continue to ponder the ridiculousness of a country the size of britain trying to instruct a country the size of america in oh, anything. what works for a country of 243,600 km² will surely work for a country of 9,827,000 km², right?!

AND ANOTHER THING - mr. tarantino, aka "i'm a massive jerk who doesn't realize that i'm making so much insanely ridiculous money that i should be fricking patient during an interview with a guy representing the common movie patron...viewers who are *paying* (lots) to get into my movies," if you think you have a hard life because said interviewer wants to ask you a seemingly tedious question about your violent, gun-containing movie in the wake of a massive gun-related tragedy, please s/t/f/u, some of us have to answer for it every/stupid/day. i must go rest my eyes now, before another day of extensive eye-rolling begins.

12 comments:

  1. This may be off topic, but are we blogging again? Because this looks like a blog post. If we're blogging again I wish you would let me know. I swear I'll try harder. Or something. If you say so.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Um. that was me. Cami. A lunatic you know and love, not some creep.

    ReplyDelete
  3. here in the US of A it seems assholes can get guns and massive amounts of bullets easier than one can get an appointment with their GP ... of course by now i would think GB would have learned their lesson ... the colonies are populated with disgruntled ex-pats who unable to own a gun there are emigrating here in order to fulfill their dream of being an American ... as evidence here http://britgalusa.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice information, Vashikaran specialist provides all kind of solutions like career, business, love marriage etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Black Magic Specialist Astrologer is one of the best expert in black magic, kala jadoo, Vashikaran etc.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ONE CALL & GET SOLUTION 100% PRIVACY & SATISFACTION
    You can reach lady astrologer over phone or in person subject to prior appointment. We have fully dedicated phone lines for the domestic as well as the international clients.
    Get in Touch with Us:- cast a love spells

    ReplyDelete
  7. Really a nice meter of this post. I read your post. Thanks for share your post with us.

    Love marriage problem solution in Mumbai

    ReplyDelete
  8. https://gwlad-byth-bythoedd.blogspot.com/2013/01/american-myths-exposed-412-all.html?showComment=1614840586168#c8199787302568408049

    ReplyDelete
  9. We prepare swatch cards so that the customer ca has a quick and convenient overview of samples available in Fabric Books and can easily get to no about each and every sample of the catalogue, swatch cards are an easy way of display, to get to no what samples are present in the fabric books, wallpaper books, fabric catalogue and other display items, it is the quickest way of sampling fabrics for customers

    ReplyDelete

Thank you in advance for what will surely make my day.