I don’t know much about America or its Gun Culture.  What we do know is a lot of people own a lot of guns in America. Americans supposedly love their guns. The reasons are multiple. Self defence. Hunting. Recreation.

But guns and gun owners have come under a lot of flak in recent times owing to the number of mass shootings. Especially in schools. Where one crazy guy goes in and murders kids.

This has resulted in calls for complete gun bans to sensible gun controls. Now I don’t know much about the Second amendment, but what I do hear from a lot of media/people is that owning a gun is crazy and America should just give up on their guns. And if they don’t then they are bad people and so are somewhat culpable whenever a mass shooting or some such happens.

But the other day I was re-watching Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. In the opening scene it cuts to a flashback of Chris Kyle’s childhood. In it his father tells his kids something which may help us understand the mentality of gun owners. The speech is about Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs.  Here it is.

Now I get that not all gun owners have the Sheepdog mentality. Nor are all gun owners good. But some of them are. And this helped me understand one aspect of the gun owners side.