Guns of the Living Dead

I was watching The Walking Dead the other day, when it occurred to me just what a bleak and pessimistic view of humanity it presents.  I'm up to The Governor driving his tank into the jail. (I know that if you don't watch The Walking Dead that will be utterly meaningless, but trust me, it's important to the rest of my musings.  So, for the sake of argument, just take my word for it, The Governor is the bad guy and Rick and his people living in the jail are the good guys).  This episode, like the whole of the previous series, assumes that in the face of the zombie apocalypse, the survivors will simply fight amongst each other for the remaining resources, killing each other as if the world still has living people to spare.  Personally, I'd like to believe that the survivors might co-operate a bit more.  After all, there's safety in numbers and establishing some kind of society with all its attendant support systems would surely improve everyone's chances of survival in the face of hordes of flesh eating zombies.

Of course, the series is set in the US and one could argue that it represents a dire warning as to the effects of widespread gun ownership.  Thanks to the lack of restrictions on the ownership of firearms, following the rise of the zombies, everyone is armed to the teeth with every imaginable form of gun.  Is it any wonder that the survivors end up shooting each other more than they do the zombies?  They're just trying to maintain what was normal behaviour before the apocalypse.  On the other hand, it could be argued that The Walking Dead is an endorsement of US gun culture - after all, how could the survivors have defended themselves against the slavering hordes of the living dead if every man and his dog didn't already own a gun before the apocalypse?  Nevertheless, I still think people would be more co-operative in the face of such a crisis, (and I'd argue that the historical communal responses to natural disasters or wars would bear this out).  Mind you, having established just how depressing the show's view of humanity is, I don't intend stopping watching it yet.  It's very well made and acted and, best of all, really conveys well a post-apocalyptic sense of isolation and the idea that the entire world has been knocked back to square one.  However, there is one thing which continues to bother me - why don't Rick and his people find an island somewhere (not necessarily off shore: one in a lake or large river would do) to establish their community?  Surely that would represent a far more secure location?  Straightforward to clear of zombies, easy to subsequently keep zombies off of (I'm sure they can't swim) and defensible against hostile rival groups of survivors.  I know that's what I'm going to do come the zombie apocalypse.