What kind of bullet sickness do we have in America?

[DonCoquixote]

52. The ugly truth

The USA was founded as a British Colony, specifically as a place where England would be able to send out the people who were badly mistreated in it's society: the Scotch, the Irish, the non-Anglican protestants such as "Anabaptist" (as they were called back then.) Now, these people were sent off to a hostile environment, and told they could get land if they just killed the natives and other Europeans. Queen Liz did so regret that the Spanish got the jump on them, especially after all that Aztec Gold started to buy all those ships and guns for Spain.

So, you had a bunch of people who were among the most oppressed in England, all of a sudden thrown into a place where shooting is the only way to survive. Worse yet, you got rewarded with power if you were able to shoot more people. Add to this that, unlike Canada, the Americans finally said "hey, we are the ones fighting and dying here, why should King George in London get most of the profits, seeing as how he still thinks of us as trash!"

You see, those in power know that if you can get a bunch of people ready to shoot others, that they will be manipulated into one way of solving problems. It's a riff on Voltaire's old saw "those that can make you believe absurdities can make you do atrocities." It does not matter whether it is the Klan in the 19th century, Assassins in the 20th, or "lone Wolf gunmen" in the 21st, the rich and the powerful know that they can raise up a bunch of armed fools to do their bidding.