According to a Reuters FactBox on Guns and gun ownership in the US, there are approximately 640 million guns in the world, 200 million, or 1/3, of which are in the United States, in 34% of households.
I’d originally planned a long tirade on creating tougher gun control laws. I had graphs in here, statistics from the Bureau of Justice, and data from recent studies done by the Harvard University School of Public Health and the University of Chicago, but then I realized it wouldn’t make any difference.
This issue is just like any other controversial issue. No matter how much evidence I put up here, there will be some Fox News or NRA sponsored study to put up against it. I’m not going to change anyone’s mind.
I’ve thought a lot about the tragedy at Va Tech the last few days (it’s hard not too, with even the German media providing almost constant coverage). I’ve been to Va Tech several times. I know I’ve been in West AJ (the dorm where the first two killings took place), and I think I was even in Norris Hall for a conference. For me at least, I have too many other associations for this to really change how I think of Tech, but I can see that much of the rest of the nation will now know of Blacksburg and Tech the same way I know of Columbine.
We have a family friend who is a student at Tech now, he is the little brother of a childhood friend of my brother Christopher. He was at my brother Christian’s wedding last July and has become a very personable, handsome, young man. I sent emails to both my brothers asking if they’d had any news, but I haven’t heard back yet if he is okay. (Update: I’ve heard back and the young man is studying abroad in Australia this semester, thank goodness he’s okay).
I have to wonder if the people who think that guns make America safer have spent much time in other developed countries. I could walk through any city in Germany (and probably most of Europe) in the middle of the night and not have any fear for my life. When I lived in Richmond, the big drunken college dare was to stand for five minutes in the middle of the night on the street corner with the most drive-by shootings in the US. I regularly heard gunshots from the dorm and the house I lived at while attending VCU. I would call campus security to drive me from the Math department to my house that was three blocks away if it was after 10pm. And I didn’t think too much of the situation. It was normal life.
I was watching one of those emigrant shows that have become so popular here in Germany, it must have been several months ago now. In it, the couple had moved to an ordinary East Coast American city, to an area that greatly resembled a typical neighborhood in Arlington or Alexandria (I think it was in New Jersey, but I can’t remember anymore). They were completely freaked out by the neighborhood. When watching the show, I thought, “These people are ridiculous! What’s wrong with them??? That neighborhood is fine!” On a very limited budget, they moved to a gated apartment complex in order to feel safe. But thinking about it over the last few days, I’ve realized, that’s how Europeans view America. While I know that their neighborhood was probably fine, it was probably much less safe than most anywhere they’d ever been in their lives.
The German newscasters ask over and over, why are Americans so attached to their guns? Rainer likens it to the German issue of speed limits on the Autobahn. Despite all the statistics showing that lives would be saved by putting controls on both, some Americans equate guns with freedom, just as some Germans equate no speed limits with freedom.
I was quite saddened this morning when one of the British newscasters on CNN International segued from the Va Tech story to the story of the assassination of the mayor of Nagasaki by saying, “And now we go from a country used to gun violence to a nation with almost no experience of it…” I wonder if things will ever change. Will this be the push the nation needs to enact stiffer gun control laws? Or will this be forgotten as yesterday’s news as soon as the next celebrity says something stupid?
And while the mass killings at Tech are tragic, to put it into a little perspective, 166 people were killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad today. That’s five times more families grieving and suffering. What are we doing Mr. Bush?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I always feel safer in Europe than I do in the U.S. I do not know what it is, but in the U.S. I hate going outside after dark– even to take the trash to the curb in our very safe neighborhood. In Europe, I walk around after dark all of the time with the dog and even baby without giving it much thought!
BTW– I would tell you what Mr. Bush is doing, but this is your blog, and I don’t want to bog it down with my excessively long rant on Bush. Let’s sum it up with “almost nothing” and that man drives me NUTS!
I too am an American Expat in Germany. A retired high school teacher. Thanks for putting my thoughts into words. What a “view” of our USA from abroad! Sad state of affairs!
The BBC has some sobering statistics, including the fact that you are six times more likely to be a victim of a firearm in the US than in any other western country.
Is it because Americans love their Rambo films? What is it? It is not only gun ownership (although it is hard to equate simple self-protection– as many NRA members do– with possesion of machine guns and rocket launchers); look at Switzerland, with its vanishingly low firearms crime rate: in that country, every able-bodied male has an aresenal in his bedroom as a member of the Swiss Army.
Thanks for the supportive comments. I was a bit worried that I’d wake up this morning with a bunch of hate mail from NRA members. By the way, if there are any of you out there reading this, my father was an NRA member until around the time that Charleton Heston took over. He quit the NRA because he thought responsible gun ownership was more important than just plain gun ownership.
My father was a gun owner. He had a little arsenal of his own in a double locked, heavy duty gun safe in his closet (which now belongs to my brothers). I know that among other weapons, there is an M-14A, a 9mm, a Walther P38, and my 2nd great-grandfather’s Civil War shotgun. I’m not someone who’s never seen a gun. I’ve held all those weapons and I was taught gun safety. In looking for statistics, I saw so many nasty posts calling those who want gun control wusses who would go into flight mode on the mere sight of a gun. Well, that’s not me. I grew up with guns in the house and I am saying this.
BTW: I just heard from my brother this morning that our family friend is studying abroad this semester. Phew!
@maria: When I first moved to Berlin I was walking around at 3am alone and I wasn’t worried. And Bush is in such a state of denial, I don’t know how that man can keep it up!
@Anon: Yeah, I wish every American had the chance to live abroad and see how the country looks from a bit of a distance. There are good things and bad things about every place in the world, no place is perfect, but I think living abroad would give people the perspective to see what’s really bad and what they’re just “used to”.
@vailian: I think the idea of “responsible” gun ownership is what’s missing. There’s a difference between having a gun and being trained to carry a gun. The Swiss are all highly trained and I’d also assume that they are psychologically screened. How many Americans do you think go through that level of training when they purchase a weapon? Very few, I would say. Most probably don’t have either the desire or the money to do it.
This issue is always a tough one on my brain, too. On the one hand, my father chased off an armed guy trying to break into my bedroom when I was 14 with a rifle, firing into the air. That guy sure never came back! Also, my step-dad is a very smart & responsible guy who owns several guns (I’ve gone target shooting with him in AZ) and he firmly believes in self-protection. His bumper sticker says “Fight crime: shoot the b*stards!”
HOWEVER, in CO I was robbed at gunpoint (as the mgr of a restaurant, I “got” to be the one taken to the safe with the gun to my head and locked in the walk-in cooler) and gang members shot out my window while driving down a major street. The bullet missed my head by an inch.
It comes down to this: do you need a gun for protection if others don’t have them? Answer: NO! But I think there’s more to the prob in the US than just that. Maybe the gansta rap, wild wild west, me-me-me attitude, also. It’s complicated. But the availability of guns IS a major factor. Just simply is.
@debbie: Wow, you’ve really been through a lot of gun related stuff in your life. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be shot at or have a gun pointed at your head. It must have been terrifying. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
My aunt was held at gunpoint in an elevator at one of the nicer hotels in Las Vegas. She ended up throwing her suitcase at the guy when the elevator stopped at a floor. Afterwards she said she didn’t know what she was thinking. She got away, but she could just as easily have been killed for a few bucks and some credit cards. I know it took her a while to get over the incident.
I wonder, how many Americans have been held at gunpoint or shot at, or know someone who was? Too many of us do, I think.
I also think that America needs gun control but believe it won’t happen. The other side of the coin, we have gun control in Canada yet we have had our share of school shootings, the most recent a few months ago in Montreal. If they want guns they will find a way to get them. We also have a lot of gang bangers who smuggle the handguns in from the US. It is the gangsta rap mentality and how to change it, well my ideas really wouldn’t fly…lock em up for good, but here they are out on bail before the cops finish the paperwork….ciao
I’m German and spent 4 months in Charlottesville, VA, in 2009. While I was never afraid there (it is a small university town), I know Americans that have guns and wouldn’t dream of giving them up. They argue that regular people with guns never kill anyone and that someone who plans to commit a murder will do it regardless of the laws in place. That’s true for sure but I still think that having guns at home is dangerous for two reasons:
1) Accidents happen. How often have we heard of kids having shot their friends while playing?
2) What about impulsive crimes?