Comment by causalscience

That's because those people are all brainwashed.

They were told: buy guns because freedom, and they repeat "we buy guns because freedom".

Then they were told: never mind freedom, lets shoot this unarmed person, and they repeat "never mind freedom, shoot the person".

"we need our guns to protect our freedom against the government" idea could have some merit, but the reason right wingers say it is different. They say it because that meme has infected them, and uses them to replicate. A meme in the original sense

> A meme is a term referring to a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another.