The British Broadcasting Company, AKA the BBC, was curious. I guess being British and all, they didn’t seem to understand why gun sales seem to spike at Christmas time. Maybe they figured “peace on Earth, goodwill to men” meant people would trust in the holiday season more than in Glock, Ruger, and Remington or something.

Either way, they were curious. What did they find out?

For Mark Warner, the sales rep, the reason is obvious. “It’s holiday giving,” he says.

Giving someone a gun for Christmas may seem strange to non-Americans. But here, it’s the equivalent of…?

“Diamonds,” interjects Mark.

“I got customers who are husband and wife. She gets Louis Vuitton bags, he gets firearms.

“That’s their gift giving to each other.”

Patrick Hudgens is planning to buy his 16-year-old son a hunting rifle for Christmas.

He’s looking at a lever-action 357, price $525. If he goes ahead, it will be the “fourth or fifth” time he has bought his son a gun at Christmas or birthday time.

Patrick taught his son to shoot with a BB gun, aged six. After “really drilling the fundamentals of safe shooting”, he progressed to more powerful weapons, preaching caution all the way.

“It’s crawl, walk, run,” he says.

Now, he goes shooting “all the time” with his son, both competitions (the International Defensive Pistol Association) and hunting, usually deer.

Let’s be honest, many of us have gotten a firearm as a gift.

I still remember the day I opened up a box and found an Enfiled Jungle Carbine in the box, my first deer rifle. I now had the means to go out and put food on the table for my family. It also made me feel like I’d become a man, just like the birthday where I opened up my Red Rider BB gun so many years before.

People give one another firearms for Christmas. How is this surprising?

Well, it’s probably because that’s not an option in the UK. They’ve long forfeited their right to keep and bear arms, so now that’s not even an option for them. As a result, they’re stunned that it happens.

The BBC did report on the legalities of giving guns, probably because they’re surprised you can do it.

But that’s what happens in a free society. People can buy and sell the means of self-defense and they can give them as presents to those they care about. It’s legal because we’re a free people, not subjects to a monarch or government.

The question shouldn’t be about why Americans give guns as presents but why people in other countries don’t. We know why, of course, but that’s why it’s tragic. Here we stand, one of the few remaining bastions of freedom in the world, because, without the right to bear arms, there is no freedom. So yes, we give guns as presents.

We give freedom as a present since that’s what guns truly, truly represent.

It may sound trite to British ears, but I’m not going to apologize. I’m a gun-toting, AR-15 shooting American who is damn proud to be able to be those things. People died for that, so if anyone thinks I should apologize for my thoughts on the topic, tough.