Perhaps the difference is one of maturity and considering everything in its proper place and worth. I will make no bones about it Goshin - when I read and hear some guys going on and on and on about guns - and you can find it here in plenty of threads - it sounds just like some 16 year old boy bragging about the size and rigidity of his own erection. It just reeks of everything negative not to say rather immature. Does that sort of "look at my pin-up pic of my latest weapon" even exist in European nations where guns are considered essential to have in the home?
Even if those folks do not abuse firearms - and I have already stated that for the most part they do not - I do think they contribute to the worship of the gun as part of American culture. And that is part of the problem.
No offense but I think you're projecting your own bias onto these discussions to which you refer. You view guns as a negative, so you view discussions about guns in that same light.
If I were to buy, let's say, a .45 Kimber autopistol with a 5" barrel, I'd probably do some bragging... it is a finely made firearm, bloody expensive, and extremely good for its purposes. Somebody like me, with an ordinary working man income, would have to save up quite a while to buy such a fine firearm, so yeah I'd be proud of my purchase. I might even make some comment about how .45 in a 5" barrel has some of the best stopping-power stats for any handgun.
Does that mean I'm looking forward to/fantasizing about the "glorious day" when I get the chance to shoot a PERSON with it? Hell no. I'm not stupid, nor am I some bloodthirsty barbarian. I hope and pray I never find it necessary to shoot a human being; I don't enjoy causing people pain or taking human life, and I know full well I will have to answer to the legal system and that even if I am fully cleared the process will not be "fun".
I think you fail to distinguish between a person being glad they have a finely-made and effective firearm available for self-defense
if they need it, and someone
glorifying the taking of human life.
Now let me make an admission here. I don't have much sympathy for violent criminals who engage in acts that could easily result in the deaths of innocents. I don't have a problem with armed citizens, acting in proper and lawful self-defense, killing armed robbers and suchlike. I've said so before and I stand by what I said. Perhaps sometimes I engaged in statements that seemed callous, like "one less scumbag is fine with me". Yup, I've said that.
Now if you want to know my
deepest thoughts and feelings on the matter, they're a little more nuanced. I've actually known a lot of criminals; in many cases I even found them likeable or felt a certain sympathy for them, if you ignore what they
do... many come from really bad backgrounds and I often think it is a shame that their lives have ended up so fracked up.
But my empathy for them comes to an end when they callously and uncaringly threaten the lives of innocent people. That's the "sheepdog" in me if you like; the sense that the wolves in human form need to be put down and their threat removed from the human herd. Some part of me may be saying "it is a shame this young man's life came to this, that he forced someone to put an end to him", but in the main I see it as the removal of a wolf from the fold.
I will admit that I have trouble understanding the mindset of someone who views guns entirely as a negative.... but I think it is plain that you don't understand the mindset of people like me very well either.