But I have a moral obligation to protect myself and my family. This is not out of a "caveman pound fist and provide food for wife" mentality - it is my choice, based on a right guaranteed to me by the U.S. Constitution.That's fine, except that the US has far higher imprisonment and crime rates including firearm crime rates than the other nations I mentioned, one of which requires citizens to hold a firearm and to receive military training so they can use it effectively and others that have more rigorous firearm control. Firearms do not seem have a causative relationship with crime and ability to protect your family. IOW yours is not a logical position unless you have some other data showing that your preference makes you safer.
I'm going to make a personal statement: in my opinion, the United States is the greatest country in the world etc etcThe US is a great nation indeed.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
