I’ve been thinking about something and want to check an assumption I have. I only hear directly from other people in the USA, and interract with the global community through memes. How are the gun regulations/laws different from yours in terms of strictness, and do you wish there was more or less where you live?
Not looking for a debate here, discuss cold drinks vs hot drinks instead. Appreciate either answer. ❤️
Edit: Thanks for the answers all. I’m super proud how productive eveyone kept this talk. I figured most of you had very different experiences than I. I’ll share my most recent experience. I don’t have a firearm, but have considered it after being trained enough. When sharing this with “normal” people around town, I had multiple people offer to sell or gift me a gun where the serial number was scratched off and non-traceable. I ofter heard, “oh man, yeah. You need a gun.” I have literally never needed one. The fact that people offer to give me one when I don’t have a liscence or training shows the mindset of the minority here and how much of a problem a few individuals can make to safety within the current system.
It’s not necessarily that much stricter in Europe. It’s just guns for self-defense, isn’t a thing.
Their are guns everywhere, and everyone who needs a gun has one.
It just stops the random fuckers getting their hands on one for no good reason. Also, automatic weapons are for killing humans. Why even sell those.
It’s just guns for self-defense, isn’t a thing.
Not really, it is a thing in Switzerland and Czechia for example.
And even outside of that, not every country has laws as strict as Germany or UK.
I believe they are the only 2 countries, so I feel my generalisation is acceptable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation
USA: No permit required for semi-automatic long guns and hand guns
Europe: Allowed with permit – good reason (like sport shooting license or proving danger to life required)
So what you say is bullshit.
You really can’t generalize for Europe. Countries here differ vastly both in regards to laws and gun ownership rates.
Belgium.
The only guns I have ever seen in my entire life were from a friend’s dad when I was little, who was a park ranger and needed them to keep animal populations in check.
Never saw an other gun, ever.
If you don’t live in a shithole country, you don’t need guns in order to feel safe.
Also Belgium. The only time I had a gun was when I joined the Police for a few years. After that, nope. In my 5 years, I’ve never even had the thought that I should pull out my gun. I’ve served in Brussels and rural areas.
It was just emphasized so much during our 12 months of training to ‘never ever use it unless it’s your last resort, only pull out your gun when you’re ready to pull the trigger’ that it simply didn’t cross my mind. We were more trained with the stick thing, ‘job?’ and judo, hand to hand combat.
Also, as a civilian you have to take an exam to own a firearm. If you have mental health problems or a record of criminal behaviour forget it. Even if you do get a license, you can only use it in a shooting range and specific situations. And never transport your gun and ammo together.
If you have a burglar, even then you’re only allowed to use appropriate force. If he has a knife, you’re not allowed to shoot him.
As a native commonwealther, guns are legally a no, but that offers no protection from those who would end up getting one.
Something that bugs me is… weapons wouldn’t be needed for defense if booby traps were legal, but those have even less legality in the world than guns, almost as if the whole goal is to make things hard.
Booby traps are not legal and should stay that way because they are indiscriminate and could hurt people you do not intend to, including yourself.
Say you have a medical emergency and tragically die at home, and someone calls for a wellness check on you after weeks or months. If you have your house trapped for “protection,” the first police officer that gets through the door ends up blasted by a rigged up pipe shotgun for no good reason.
I’m not thinking of the kind of booby traps meant to kill, I’m thinking of the classic Scooby Doo kind where they’re just meant to restrain.
But if course they offer protection as they prevent virtually all cases where someone would get a gun in the first place.
That’s the reason the US has so many gun related terror attacks: guns are ubiquitous, which means any problem can readily escalate to a gun attack. Getting a gun in most other countries requires a significant amount of commitment that most of these cases wouldn’t ever have developed in the first place.
Sure, it decreases the amount of gun violence to criminalize firearms, but if someone is dedicated, this can be circumvented with a black market or some tinkering, and when they do strike, people are more unprepared, giving the suspect almost the same advantage. We not only see this between the different states (since each US state handles firearms differently) but also other nations (the New Zealand and Australian shootings a year or so back were devastating).
USA here, more depressed about our gun nonsense than before.
Yeah. There is an abundance of opinions here, but most if not all are very self-centered. It’s all I ever heard.
In my country its not allowed for civilians to murder people with guns, even if they come to your house or look like another ethnicity. Cops still do it sometimes tho, but they usually use cars/boots