A number of European countries have seen their gun sales take off as people feel insecure after the recent wave of terror…
The total number of gun permits have gone up by 6,000 in the Czech Republic during 2016 following years of decline. President Milos Zeman used to advocate gun control, but called for easier access to guns in July following the terror attack in Nice.
“Earlier I spoke against possession of large amounts of weapons [in the hands of the people],” Zeman said in a July interview with newspaper Blesk. “After those attacks, I do not think so any more.”
“Every law-abiding citizen should be able to defend themselves, their family and their friends,” Petry said Saturday in an interview with Funke Media Group.
r/K Theory hypothesizes that humans are adaptable. When times are r, and resources are free, they will exhibit the conflict-avoidant psychology of the r-strategy. In that mode, guns are scary, and if you have to run from them fine, but even better is if you can simply tell government to make the guns all go away. It is a rabbitized brain programing, designed for a rabbit environment with no conflict, and only feeling comfortable with rabbitry around it.
When shortage and conflict come, the brain remodels itself in response to the new environment’s stresseses, and the entire psychology changes. Many anti-gunners will become gun-owners, and the entire population will shift toward that K-strategy.
Why I find it interesting is, because of this, you can’t explain gun control logically. Rabbits cannot grasp that guns might ever be useful or good, no matter the facts or logic you present You first need to prime the brain with threat and fear, trigger the amygdalae, and get the brain in the right “mode” to be receptive to the logical arguments. A hippy-dippy liberal, glossy eye’d with dreams of Obama enriching everyone with handouts from his stash, is not going to be open to the idea that you have a right to protect your loved ones. A liberal who is frightened because criminals are going to kill him will be much more open to the idea that the average citizen has a right to self defense.
Of course, I expect that a year or two into the economic apocalypse, the pro-gun-control forces will be totally overwhelmed, as the entire population goes ultra-K. In that environment, ne’er-do-wells will do much better keeping their meddlesome tendencies under wraps, because in that irritating, enraging environment, people will kill that which irritates them.
[…] Gun Sales In Europe Surge […]
“Rabbits cannot grasp that guns might ever be useful or good, no matter the facts or logic you present.”
Yep. And they seek out any and all “data” that will confirm their fearful bias. Such as the trope that people are much more likely to hurt/kill themselves or their family than to successfully defend themselves. No amount of real data will dissuade them from that. Believe me, I know as my family is rife with them. Ugh.
Of course that perspective often changes after actually facing (and surviving) a threat. Over the years many have decided that having a gun may not be such a bad idea after all after that home invasion or mugging. And that has accelerated the last couple years. They aren’t likely to be full on 2d A supporters (i.e. still support “common sense” restrictions, etc.), but that may change too as our govt becomes a more undeniable threat to us.
Excuse this simpleton’s simple observation , but I read in your Haidt article that a person’s fear of elevators can be turned around step by step by step by step by step . Yet Czech president President Milos Zeman’s advocacy for gun control evaporated quickly as he suddenly advocated for more guns in the hands of more people, a 180degree change in cause . Did he trade his fears slowly or quickly?