Fear. That's exactly it, in spades.

The U.S culture of fear, hyped by Republican assholes and others of limited intelligence.

Same bullshit as when Richard Hofstadter published The Paranoid Style in American Politics   in 1964. Someone is always out to getcha getcha getcha - Mexican immigrant criminal rapists, the Federal Government, minorities, residents of urban slums, the poor, the disadvantaged, Muslims, "Liberals", humanists, Syran refugees, Planned Parenthood, the whole pantheon of they're out to getcha terrorist shibboleths.

Pat Sky ( god love him!) had this down in 1968 and we haven't learned shit since:

Queen of Fools turn around, life will be your folly
Wave your wand at those who will waste away and worry
Play them for the fools they are and make their steps up for them
A clock that's shaken hard enough, it cannot stay in rhythm.

(c)Rabelaisian Music, Inc.

Ditto Tom Paxton in 1965:

Buy a gun for your son right away, Sir
Shake his hand like a man and let him play, Sir.
Let his little mind expand, Place a weapon in his hand,
For the skills he learns today will someday pay, Sir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WphNO24h9nA

The U.S. hasn't learned a fucking thing in half a century.