Interview with Americans! 1/23/19

[MasterWalks]

Ah, that makes sense. So "USAn" really isn't a term that anyone uses. (Admittedly, I made it up on the fly. ^^")

I have other questions too:

• What do you do in your free time if you cannot stay at home? Especially in city areas.
• I heard that everyone has a gun in the US. How true is that? How easy is it to get a gun? Is there an age under which guns cannot be gotten?
• When you want to get off an american bus, how do you signal it to the driver?

Ill answer the first 2 since they vary. The last one has been answered pretty completely.

What do you do in your free time if you cannot stay at home? Especially in city areas... I live in a small city/large town. If I cannot be at home, there are about a million bars and college parties in my town at night. Wine tasting and spirit tasting in the day time. In a city, the market and downtown areas are usually where the fun is.

I heard that everyone has a gun in the US. How true is that? How easy is it to get a gun? Is there an age under which guns cannot be gotten?..... I was kicked out of my parents at 18 y/o. I could only afford a really ghetto apartment in a bad side of town. The first thing i did was buy a shotgun for home defense. $200 and about 30 min later i had legally purchased a shotgun at 18 (Washington State). It was not hard at all, the hardest part was finding one in my price range. Is there an age limit when buying a gun? Yes. 18 to buy shotguns and rifles. 21 to buy pistols and handguns. You cannot own a fully automatic weapon nor can you own explosive weapons.

[shockcannon]

I prefer the mm/dd/yyyy format quite a bit, even after using several others. It's the most intuitive to me. This country probably should've switched to metric just for the sake of easier communication, but I honestly don't mind imperial. I know both pretty decently now.

A lot of people in rural or countryside areas own guns to hunt, either for sport or to eat. Outside of actual gun violence, this is really the main reason why guns are used by so many average citizens. A lot of people own guns for self defense but very rarely do they ever have to touch their gun. I honestly wouldn't care whether we had stricter gun laws or looser gun laws. People just need to be better educated about guns. There's basically 0 gun education unless you seek it out yourself. I also think parenting on average is quite bad in the USA. In my opinion, this would be the one of the main, if not the main, reasons why there are so many shooting incidents.

Movies is always a good go-to for hanging out. Hiking is always an option as well since I live close to a mountain range. I spend a lot of time at friends' houses playing games and talking as well. There's also sports. I used to spend a lot of time tossing a football with friends in my spare time or playing pick up football (American football, although I also like soccer/futbol). Currently though, I play a lot of dodgeball for a university.

Interestingly, I once watched a video where non-Americans thought that Americans consume a lot of ranch. I thought that was interesting because I never thought about it, but I suppose other countries don't eat ranch? I don't think I eat ranch that much but I do eat it with chicken wings, chicken sandwiches, and on salads. It's also decent with fried pickles or fries, although I think there are better options for fries.

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Putting personal bias aside (which is probably difficult due to having used it your entire lives), but do you think that Imperial is truly better than Metric? Also same question to MM/DD/YY vs DD/MM/YY

Metric is better than Imperial. I have no idea why the Gov isn't implementing is. As for MM/DD/YY, I don't really mind it. Seems the most conventional.

I have other questions too:

• What do you do in your free time if you cannot stay at home? Especially in city areas.
• I heard that everyone has a gun in the US. How true is that? How easy is it to get a gun? Is there an age under which guns cannot be gotten?
• When you want to get off an american bus, how do you signal it to the driver?

I happen to live in a suburban area. In cases where I can't really stay at home, I'm usually hanging out with other people (probably playing video games), mostly living in similar areas. On occasion, I go out to some sort of restaurant to eat.
I don't have a gun, mainly because I don't have any real need to. The place I live has one of the least crime rates in the Bay Area.
I don't usually take the bus, but I usually get off when the bus reaches the stop nearest to me.

[Wyand]

So I think the first way being simpler/quicker then led to it being converted to numbers in the same order for clarity?  It sort of makes sense.  I still think YYYYMMDD is the best when writing/dating things in any digital context (which is increasingly most things).

Absolutely agree. In Hungary we use this method, this is the best. Going from the bigger sets to the smaller sets. (Although we are forced to use DDMMYYYY - due to being a member of EU - on food items. Bleh.)

[Wyand]

price range. Is there an age limit when buying a gun? Yes. 18 to buy shotguns and rifles. 21 to buy pistols and handguns. You cannot own a fully automatic weapon nor can you own explosive weapons.

What the...? Could someone explain this? What is the logic? "Hey, you are 18, here is a shotgun, pls blast 8-inch holes into anything which attacks you."
Maybe shotguns are less precise, but more devastating in close range. Guess they think like these are hunting weapons, but pistols are for self-defense.
I'm pretty sure you can cause more damage with a shotgun, so this is kinda strange for me.

[MasterWalks]

price range. Is there an age limit when buying a gun? Yes. 18 to buy shotguns and rifles. 21 to buy pistols and handguns. You cannot own a fully automatic weapon nor can you own explosive weapons.

What the...? Could someone explain this? What is the logic? "Hey, you are 18, here is a shotgun, pls blast 8-inch holes into anything which attacks you."
Maybe shotguns are less precise, but more devastating in close range. Guess they think like these are hunting weapons, but pistols are for self-defense.
I'm pretty sure you can cause more damage with a shotgun, so this is kinda strange for me.

yes. Its hard to conceal a rifle. Its easy to conceal a handgun.

pls blast 8-inch holes into anything which attacks you.

To blast a hole that large you would need slugs. Slugs are very expensive and hard to get. What i buy is bird shot. Bird shot is *fairly* not too lethal at medium range which is perfect for home defense. plus, its like $12 for 24. For slugs your looking at about $40 for 6 and there is a limit on how many you can buy.

Pistols are not great for home defense. They are easy to disarm from somebody and it requires you to aim, unlike shotguns, which you just kinda point in the general direction of the intruder. Pistols are good for fun shooting and if you have a conceal carry or open carry license.

[Mobian]

Why Russians are always the bad guys for you?

Cause we already beat the Germans, and the uneducated.... which is sadly MOST of the country.... see Russia as some scary big bad cause they have scary accents. Hollywood doesn't help matters either.

As far as all the gun questions go, well, that gets messy. We don't have any universal laws (unless you consider the Second Amendment, which negates ALL gun laws), and it's more or less up to the individual states to determine "legality" (again, Second Amendment). The laws are typically more restrictive in the more liberal-leaning states, and less restrictive to non-existant in the more conservative leaning countries.

[ddevans96]

Why Russians are always the bad guys for you?

A lot of it goes back to the Cold War and the events surrounding it (Space Race, Miracle on Ice, etc) - many people who were alive then are still wary of Russia (and I'm sure the reverse is true). The fact that both are world powers with often contrasting world views and strong and/or argumentative leaders feeds into this, especially for adults who put emphasis on politics.

Most educated teenagers and young adults have no negative opinions about Russia.

Putting personal bias aside (which is probably difficult due to having used it your entire lives), but do you think that Imperial is truly better than Metric? Also same question to MM/DD/YY vs DD/MM/YY

Metric: The metric system is indisputably better in most cases. Despite common belief, Americans are taught the metric system from a young age, tend to use it even more as they progress through schooling and careers, and as a result, most young adults actually know the metric system better.

Dates: As far as I'm concerned, both of those systems are awful. The best way is using an abbreviation for the month to remove ambiguity - 24 Jan 2019, Jan 24 2019, 2019 Jan 24, whatever. But if only numbers are being used, then it really doesn't matter as long as it's clearly stated what format is being used in an obvious place.

• What do you do in your free time if you cannot stay at home? Especially in city areas.
• I heard that everyone has a gun in the US. How true is that? How easy is it to get a gun? Is there an age under which guns cannot be gotten?

Free time: Most American cities have vibrant nightlife, generally things like nightclubs, downtown districts, outdoor malls, even bowling alleys. If nothing else, there's generally a variety of bars available in most places.

Guns: Many people own guns, more so in rural areas, but not all. You can buy them at specialized sporting goods stores, and in some areas you may be able to purchase some guns at a local supermarket (but still from a licensed dealer). They aren't particularly cheap, and you'll generally need an ID confirming your identity and that you meet the age requirements for the type of gun in question, and a clean record of both criminal history and mental health. Rural areas or areas where hunting is prominent often relax some restrictions. In some areas, obtaining guns illegally is not difficult.

[dragonsdemesne]

Why do so many Americans feel the need to not only own guns, but to have them on their person at all times?

[ddevans96]

Why do so many Americans feel the need to not only own guns, but to have them on their person at all times?

About 30-35% of Americans own guns (generally for hunting, home defense, and sport shooting), and about 1% of all Americans carry a handgun in public daily. Most of them claim to do so for protection.

In its youth, many parts of the United States saw guns as normal, and some places embraced them as cultural symbols - primarily because of the Revolution, the resulting Constitution having the right to keep and bear arms as its Second Amendment, and then a century later, events like the Civil War and the expansion of the American Frontier (the Wild West). These mentalities were passed on through generations.

As domestic violence has greatly rise in recent years, there is now a very heated debate on gun control that has become a central political issue. Young adults are generally less predisposed to own guns and have less opposition to stricter gun control than their parents' generation.

In Colorado, my home state, the debate is particularly notable for two reasons -

1) we are split fairly even politically, to the point of being a swing state in elections - gun rights is an extremely partisan and corruptible issue
2) we have had two major mass shootings - Columbine in 1999 and Aurora in 2012

[Blacksmith]

Interesting thread. I probably think of more questions later.

1: Do Amercans in general believe that USA is the best country in the world and that everyone else secretly wants to move there?
2: So what do you think about the gun laws, are they reasonable? If not what changes would you do?
3: What is your take on Communism? In my experience people in USA hasn't read up what communism actually is. I've seen people being interviewed call Obama a communist as an example.
4: Whats do you think about the climate change and your part in it? United states has a really high carbon dioxide usage per person.
5: Do you think USA is ready for a president who is an atheist officially? what is the fear with that? I can't think of any European country where a religious belief is mandatory for president hood.

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Interesting thread. I probably think of more questions later.

1: Do Americans in general believe that USA is the best country in the world and that everyone else secretly wants to move there?
2: So what do you think about the gun laws, are they reasonable? If not what changes would you do?
3: What is your take on Communism? In my experience people in USA don't understand what it actually is. I've seen people being interviewed call Obama a communist as an example.
4: Whats do you think about the climate change and your part in it? United states has a really high carbon dioxide usage per person.
5: Do you think USA is ready for a president who is an atheist officially? what is the fear with that? I can't think of any European country where a religious belief is mandatory for president hood.

1. Not really. Some are hardcore weebs/Koreaboos that think Japan/South Korea are the best country and want to move there. (I'm technically an otaku, but weeaboo/weeb is easier to say so I call myself that.)
2. Not really much of a politics guy. I think the gun laws are alright as of right now.
3. It's an economic idea that's great in theory but awful in practice. My take on it is that you need to be able to sustain a country with some sort of flow of currency in order to work, which is why most countries have some elements of capitalism in their economies.
4. I understand that the climate change could eventually affect more parts of the U.S., including where I live, and I realize that I should do whatever I can to prevent it. But as of right now, I don't really care too much.
5. I'm personally fine with an atheist president, but I'm not sure how other people would see it. I think the main fear there is that he'll take his beliefs too far?