...mostly by those very same weapons. Go figure.

to its logical conclusion.....

maybe they're the bad guys with the guns......

and play war "games". Having been through it I can assure there is nothing fun about war.

at all. Morons don't like other morons telling them what to do, and that's the military way. Instead, they collect their weapons, take them to the range and shoot them at targets. In doing so, they fool themselves into believing that they are dangerous men, worthy of respect.

For under $1000, anyone can own those firearms, take them to the range, and be a moron without having to have another moron telling you what to do on a regular basis. It's an attractive fantasy to some.

Others actually were in the military at some point. For some of these, that was the high point of their life, so they try to relive that through their firearms and range time. It doesn't work so very well, though.

Hell, I saw guys who couldn't handle bootcamp.

Navy bootcamp.

I damned sure don't want to fight alongside someone like that.

And you are right: Many people's greatest experience was in the military and they want to recapture that.

....for some, it was when they first heard Glenn Beck.

They set up a fake "camp" with a UN flag flying at it and pretend they are in a post-apocalyptic America where the UN has sent in jack booted gay French or something. They shoot up old cars and pretend they won the war and go home thinking their little backwater town should thank them for defending their freedom.

Those "militias" have always given me a laugh. Some of those folks believe that they could stand off the military or even just the police with their "tactical" skills and paraphernalia.

Oddly enough, though, they never seem to test that belief.

But hey, it's like hunting camp. Buncha scruffy guys sitting around the campfire, farting loudly and telling stories. Then, when they get home, their wives make them shave and go mow the lawn. It's tough out there for a guy.

or disability payments from the government they hate so much.

As the King of Siam says, "'Tis a puzzlement."

They are terrified that being an asshole will be against the law.

If they are so keen on playing solider, they should enlist and make themselves useful.

style - signing up to serve their country and combat train & drill in the July heat and January sleet? Not so much...

The NRA really has a large number of these folks brainwashed with "Red Dawn" fantasies. It's truly sad.

and 4 combat deployments, got out and did security work as well as a cadre advisory position in Central America and Mexico.
Have always been a leftist and I have been a Democrat since my youth... So where does that place me in your quaint overlapping circle charts?

That said, there are far too many people on the Right hungry for a fight, unfortunately many are trained and experienced, and they hate us, me more than you, as a soldier "I should know better". The combat arms are loaded with the conservative side of the aisle, and many RW extremists have used the US military as a training ground for their masturbatory helter skelter fantasies.