@myoclon1cjerk wrote:
Self perpetuating. Their constitution allows them to bear arms to protect themselves against a totalitarian government. The government has to build a massive military and associated domestic security agencies to protect itself from a well armed, scared and paranoid society. This justifies the massive spending on weapons and leaves little for healthcare, education, unemployment benefits etc.
Here's our federal spending for 2018. As you can see, defense spending is dwarfed by all the other categories.
Other - Unemployment, federal employee retirement benefits, some veterans benefits, etc
Nondefense - Programs related to transportation, other vets benefits, education, health, housing assistance
Medicaid is health insurance for low income people
There seem to be many misconceptions about life here in the US... we all need guns to protect ourselves from each other... we all live in poverty... nobody wants to move here anymore (yet we are FLOODED with immigrants daily, both legal and illegal)...
The difference between liife experience and web scholarship, I suppose... 
@Anonymous wrote:Lol - many seem to think it's the Wild West. Most of the violence occurs in high density population areas - no surprise. And it's not politics at fault - both democrat and republican controlled cities have the problem. It's a matter of the haves and have nots, drug fueled crime, youth who are raised in these horrible situations come to believe that's the best life they're ever going to have. They see the dealer who lives down the street, wearing $500 sneakers, expensive jewelry, all they have to do is run pot or coke or meth, whatever. Easy peasy. Oh, and carry a gun because the guy on the next street wants what you have.
I live near Baltimore & DC. I worked in downtown Baltimore for many years, never had a problem, never thought I should carry a gun. BUT - I was there during the day, and I was in a touristy area - a block from the Inner Harbor. Not a high crime area - at least it wasn't when I was there.
The world doesn't believe it's the wild west (that's just a cop out that pro gun people use as a defence to justify
the use of guns in the US and the high death toll because of those guns).
The rest of the world thinks that the US citizens simply doesn't care about the death toll as that's just a
consequence of needing guns to protect themselves from the paranoia of their own making and that's
just exacerbated by the gun lobby so that they can sell more guns.
The facts are that the US has the highest rate of death and suicide in high income countries by a hell of a long
way due to gun use.
@bidicus*maximus wrote:
Let's not forget that the military also has nukes... however, weapons of mass destruction aren't selective enough to put down a rebellion. The imagined "despot" would surely try to give the appearance of being a legitimate leader and would doubtless have many followers dependant upon him for their livelihood. Indiscriminate killing would never do. Small arms might in fact be of great use to a resistance.
No wonder the US has such a vivid imagination and a large film industry that are great at make believe.
From the country that has people believing in Vampires,walking dead,etc and all the other make believe stuff
then them believing in a make believe "despot" obviously makes perfect sense to their minds.
The part that gets me is that they are all perfectly willing to be led around by the gun lobby and the paranoia
they use to promote more sales of guns but thinks the government to be corrupt.
Remember the last drop in gun sales and the simple "solution" was to just post that there was going to be a
restriction if certain people got their way.
Well guess what they sold over 900 hundred thousand guns quickly to get sales back up and that is where lies
your problem,not the government but the gun lobby which is only interested in sales and the deaths of it's own
citizens is only collateral damage in their bid to make more money and they'll use any tactic including the so
called "corrupt" government scenarios just so that they get sales.
