Guns

For European readers this may come as a shock, but it is perfectly possible to live in the United States and

1. Not own a gun.
2. Feel no need to own a gun.
3. Have no fear of other people who do own guns.

During the several months that I spent working there (OK, this is nearly a quarter of a century ago), the subject never crossed my mind. I never ran into a single incident where a gun was involved. You could just as easily have been in Germany or the UK.

That is though as close as the comparison gets.

The mind-set is totally different here from there. If they wanted to take guns away from all gun-owners, legal or illegal, law-abiding citizen or criminal, in the US it would be a massive exercise. Unlike here for example, where ownership of guns is rare and discouraged.

After the Winnenden shooting two or three years ago, I recall entering a comment on an English-language website here indicating that I could not see why gun-club members had to take their guns home with them, surely they could stay under lock and key at the club.

You could guess the origins of the people from the responses that I got. The Europeans all nodded in agreement. One American expatriate though informed me that I should be afraid what would happen to me if some armed robber broke in usw.

No fear of the latter.

1. You do not get many armed robbers breaking into houses here - they also have difficulty getting hold of guns, and there are better targets than us if you want to rob someone (banks for example). I cannot recall hearing of a single domestic break-in by an armed robber in 11 years living in Germany, though armed bank robberies do occur occasionally.
2. The percentage chance is so small, I am not prepared to get paranoid about it.
3. Anyone wanting to steal much wouldn't find it worth his/her time anyway!
4. I would not know how to handle a gun, nor have I the slightest desire/intention to learn how to handle one!

Once in a while we get an incident, like in Winnenden, or in Erfurt in 2002, where some maniac has got hold of a gun and gone out and killed a load of people. Such incidents are tragic, and thankfully rare. That they are rare though is indicative of the fact that the rules here work for the most part. The laws could still be tightened up?  Maybe.

Either way I see no reason to get paranoid about it. I also see no need to lecture Americans about their gun laws, even given the dreadful event in Colorado the other week. It is eventually for the people there to decide the best course of action to follow. Different cultures breed different expectations and often require different solutions.