Let's say we did a study in which we asked Americans how many of them owned a hockey stick, and then asked them whether or not they or anyone in their family participated in playing hockey. Did they belong to a hockey club? Did they play hockey with friends sometimes? Did they belong to a place with a good hockey-playing rink? Everyone who answers 'yes' to the questions after 'Do you own a hockey stick?' is said to belong to a 'hockey culture.'
What do you think the delta would be between hockey-stick-ownership rates for those who do, and do not, belong to a hockey culture?
3 comments:
Tempest, teapot. Fact is, 2nd Amendment supporters are winning hearts and minds on this thing, and regardless of how desperate the anti-2nd forces get, they will continue to lose ground. And ultimately, even if they do something extreme such as pack the Supreme Court to gut the 2nd Amendment, all they will do is bring about the very doom they fear. Because the surest way to actually start an armed rebellion in this country is to actually try to take the guns away. And at that point, the simple fact that one in three Americans is a gun owner (vastly outnumbering the armed forces and all local, state and federal law enforcement members... assuming that every one of them sides with the gun grabbers) means that they will lose any such conflict.
Every time someone gives me the "what good is a handgun against a tank or bomber?" line, I respond the same way... ask the Syrians and Libyans that question. I think they'll have some useful insight on the matter.
The reason I asked the question is that I assume the answer would be much sharper. I would think that close to 0% of households that don't engage in hockey own hockey sticks, and close to 100% of those who engage in 'hockey culture' probably have the equipment. Even if it were 20% v. 80%, that's 4 to 1, but you'd think it would be higher still. Thus, a 2.25 to 1 ratio seems shockingly low.
You'd probably get something like the 2.25-1 ratio is you asked about houses that own baseballs, say, compared with those who actively play baseball. Most fathers at some point play catch with their sons, and a fair subset of households have children, so there are going to be a lot of households that own baseballs but don't participate in 'baseball culture.' But baseball is the national pastime. It's not just ordinary, it's symbolically ordinary of America.
I take that to mean that gun ownership is also ordinary for Americans, even for those who aren't part of "gun culture."
Cool, I'm both a member of gun culture and hockey culture. Proud of it, too.
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