Have been trying to avoid this topic as i know my opinions may rub people the wrong way.
As an outsider i honestly see similarities between the USA and all the middle eastern/European countries that are always at war/bombing each other etc. The only difference really being that the USA is a much more advanced country that still manages to have a government and law enforcement etc that can keep relative control of things, so that cities aren't being bombarded every few days.
It's the fact that people like me in the USA can walk around with (state dependant)/have all sorts of guns in our houses and it's deemed as 'normal'. To an outsider, in a country with really strict gun control laws like NZ, it's really bewildering and shocking that many Americans consider it 'normal/necessary'. Like it honestly makes me compare it to the war torn countries. USA just looks a lot nicer and still has a decent law enforcement/less trigger happy government.
Don't bash me for saying this, as it's just how things seem from over this side of the world.
Admittedly when we were in the USA last year the only people we saw with guns were police officers, and only in the airport at Houston (?) and the officers in Times Square. But because that's not what we see every day, the media gives us the impression that things are pretty mental (even though we've been there and remember it differently). Personally i'm pretty sure i've never even picked up a real gun.
I don't think it'll change much, but i'm pleased to see so many big companies like Chubb, Hertz, United, Delta etc drop support for the NRA and hope it continues to a point where something civilised starts to happen - like better restrictions/checks/requirements etc to purchase/own a gun. Assault rifles though should be goneburger to the public, because there is no fvcking need
at all to have them in a civilised country! It's bloody absurd!
And don't get me started on the 'amendment right' to own a gun (or whatever it is). That was probably fine back in the day when guns took a good minute or so to load and there were civil wars all over the place, but in a first world civilised country it just seems backwards and bizzare. In my (and other New Zealanders i know) opinion.