Great piece, Libby -
This is much more valid than a simple "red state vs blue state" discussion. Certainly the simple fact of greater self-reliance feeds into this in an outsized way. There is simply less need to find ways to get along with one's neighbor when they aren't living on top of you! Also, being self-reliant, it's very hard to grasp the fact that (for the most part) red states need more help from the federal government than blue ones.
I used to feel that guns were another thing that made sense (maybe?) in a rural environment. Of course, when one looks at the actual rates of fun violence in red vs. blue, the reality is a bit different .
Frankly, educated folks can be too smug - posts like this clearly demonstrate that they can still do more learnin'