@can

I'm not arguing with you on this, I agree with your main point. But I also live up here and, sometimes, talk to my neighbors. (Or argue with them, but that's another story.)

I think it's a cultural thing and it's tied pretty closely to why those people own so many guns in the first place. Many of them honestly believe cities are hotbeds of crime and city people come up here and bring the crime with them.

I've tried explaining how 'per-capita' crime statistics does not support this view.

@can

Maybe not. But you still don't want someone with a gun berating you for ignoring a sign they feel strongly about.

I try to be a little nicer, but I feel pretty strongly about that sign myself. It means what it means.

FWIW: There's a whole code of conduct thing up here about going onto people's property. If you aren't a friend or a delivery, even if they know who you are, you park at the end of the road and honk your horn. If they want to talk to you they will come out and wave you in.

Boy do I know that one.
Google maps marks my (admittedly very long) driveway as a road actually located a quarter mile south of my place.
As a result I get three or four people a month driving past my 'keep out' and 'private road' signs to whom I must explain that Google is wrong.
Then I explain that driving past keep out signs up here in the mountains is a REALLY BAD IDEA and they are incredibly lucky they did it at my place and not one of my neighbors, who come out with a gun.