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The last several years have seen the debate over guns rage in the United States, a debate that’s all to often been divided into the oversimplified categories of pro-gun versus anti-gun.

Colin Woodard at Tufts Magazine has found a very different pattern of attitudes toward violence in the nation, though, based on a history that has essentially divided the country into eleven distinctly different parts.

The original North American colonies were settled by people from distinct regions of the British Isles—and from France, the Netherlands, and Spain—each with its own religious, political, and ethnographic traits. For generations, these Euro-American cultures developed in isolation from one another, consolidating their cherished religious and political principles and fundamental values, and expanding across the eastern half of the continent in nearly exclusive settlement bands. Throughout the colonial period and the Early Republic, they saw themselves as competitors—for land, capital, and other settlers—and even as enemies, taking opposing sides in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War.

There’s never been an America, but rather several Americas—each a distinct nation. There are eleven nations today. Each looks at violence, as well as everything else, in its own way.

He admits he’s far from the first person to observe these differences, but as we continue the discussion over gun rights and control, it’s especially helpful to see where many of us find our inspiration whether we realize it or not.

Full story at Tufts Magazine.

The origins of the gun debate.