Many supporters of guns say that our problem is not too many guns, but rather a culture of guns that emanates from mass media and video games. It\u2019s just incidental that the U.S. has almost one gun per citizen.<\/p>\n
The problem with this argument is that, in countries like Japan and South Korea, there is as much, if not more, presence of \u201cgun-tertainment\u201d as there is in the United States. Yet their incidence of actual gun violence is but a small fraction of that of the United States<\/a>. Japan\u2019s firearm death rate is 6percent\u00a0 of that of the U.S., and South Korea\u2019s is 12 percent. What\u2019s the difference between the U.S. and these countries? It\u2019s clear; it\u2019s that the guns per capita in the U.S. is much greater than in Japan or Korea. For every one person<\/a> in Japan who has a gun, 147 Americans have a gun. For every person in South Korea with a gun, there are eighty people in the U.S. with a gun.<\/p>\n It has become more acceptable for those Americans who have concerns about the high rate of crimes committed by firearms to challenge our gun culture. Pro-gun control advocates can find some degree of common ground with anti-gun control advocates on the issues of media and entertainment. But it\u2019s difficult to take action because of real issues with the First Amendment<\/a>, not the Second Amendment<\/a>. Possible infringement of free speech is as much of a real issue in limiting guns and violence in our movies, television shows, and video games as it is with limiting the flow of money in politics into candidates\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n And in spite of the NRA\u2019s opposition to background checks, many pro-gun people join the anti-gun people in wanting to keep guns away from those with criminal records or a histories of mental illness. But that\u2019s about as far as the bond of common ground can stretch.<\/p>\n