I keep finding the worst kind of graffiti and litter!
At pretty much every place I stop to camp here in Alaska I find plenty of shell casings from firearms. I usually just find a little dirt side road that goes nowhere for my camps. There are plenty of them since they are created by the road and telephone maintenance crews.
But of course, I am not the first or last person to find them and camping is not all they get used for.
The pictures above are pretty standard stuff. At this site, I found quantities of two types of shotgun casings and four types of solid bullet casings. Im very sure that one of the weapons was a 9mm pistol, another was a .040 caliber pistol, and Im pretty sure that a third one was a fully automatic of some sort (by the number and distribution of the casings).
There were also a scattering of two or three other calibers but old and in low numbers.
And the road signs all along the highways here are also almost all "vandalized" with "NRA graffiti" as I like to call it (For non-North Americans thats the "National Rifle Association"... A very big and very powerful pro-gun lobby group in the USA).
Id like to say this is just an American issue, but sadly, I think the truth is that its just more visible here in the USA than in Canada, and that is because of the availability of guns of all sorts.
The truth is that I think most countries have the "issues" that cause this sort of behavior and its all just under the surface.
Having guns and using them like this is all about FEAR.
The only reason to have a gun and use it in this way is because the owner needs to feel big and strong... which is because they are afraid of something.
Now in a very few cases the fear of wild animals and such is real... but you dont need pistols, or automatic weapons, or to shoot up road signs to deal with that!
In case of the types of guns involved here and the way they are being used, its all about " Fear of other people" (and the associated desire to make other people fear you)... and I think that in many ways, that sums up how a lot of Americans feel about other people (other Americans as well as other foreigners).
Its really sad.
People can become so closed and afraid of "other ways".
And likewise its very sad that people are so used to "trying to get whatever they can" out of life as far as money and material that they become so afraid that other people will try to take it away from them (Those other people are clearly using the same set of rules - if you can get it then take it).
Now, Im sure its not all like that, and as I said, Im also sure this is "just under the surface" in most of our "developed" world societies (not to mention, the less developed ones), not just the USA.
But thats what guns are about... FEAR... and its a measure of how uncivilized we can be and how far we have yet to go.
But by the same token, I have to note that in many ways our human societies have already come a long way from the simple feudal system of "might is right" as it was for many centuries :))
