After a few engagements here today, I have revised my opinion of the #UnitedStates. It doesn't run on capitalism - it runs on fear.
People defend 2A because they're threatened by an enemy that doesn't exist. There will be no jihad against North Dakota. Who'd bother?

They worry about terrorism, but can't identify it. The Boston Marathon is bombed. That's terrorism for sure.
A church slaughtered by an American. A cinema shot up. A school massacred. That, apparently, is a mental health issue.

When you own a gun, you live in fear. The potential intruder is not the cause of that fear - the gun on your nightstand is. Just looking at it makes you fearful because it makes you anticipate a threat that doesn't exist.

Some here tonight have told me they own guns to protect their families. From what? An imaginary threat that nonetheless scares their kids. Dad has a gun. Maybe I need a gun.

It's a horribly self-perpetuating argument. The US has 4.4% of the world's population and almost half the world's guns in civilian hands. They've been played by manufacturers.

They're all screaming now about defund the police - the very police they should trust to defend them, rather than defending themselves. It's one or other. When Trump tweets LAW AND ORDER!, there can't be order when the citizenry is a militia.

In that case, it literally is a terrorist organisation that can and will fight the police. We saw the resistance movements. It saddens me to say this, because I love the United States, but it lives in a heightened sense of stoked fear.

And the reason why is that
the fearful are malleable.
By Trump.
By McConnell.
By racism and xenophobia.
By walls that protect them against no threat.

Who does this suit? Massive corporations who sell the balm. Apple. Tesla. Amazon.
"You're afraid? Here, buy a gun, ignore tax cuts for me, and ask Alexa to make you happy..."
Utterly warped.