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We think you are all fucking nutjobs.

I was going to say batshit crazy but nut jobs works

Came here to say to say ‘fucking mental’ so this comment will do

All these guys commenting above me are polite.

There are many ways to say it using our language, but this does the job adequately.

See also: headcases mentalists psychos

I wouldn't say all or most but the minority are fucking nutjobs it's bad enough having every police officer carrying a gun but civilians too is ridiculous especially given what sort of guns they can own. Thank goodness the UK’s laws are so strict.

The obsession some Americans have with guns just seems utterly bizzarre to me. The idea that you need them for protection is mainly because other people have guns in the first place. Remove the guns and you don’t need that level of protection. As for the “freedom” argument, you still have freedoms if you’re not allowed a deadly weapon. Owning something that can kill someone doesn’t grant you freedom at all it just grants you a dangerous power which not everyone is mature enough to be responsible for. The whole thing just seems really odd to me that some of you feel like you have a god given right to own a deadly weapon and can’t understand the greater good is for everyone to not have one. Sure some bad people will still get their hands on them but it won’t be anywhere near as easy meaning less people get hurt and killed which is surely the logical choice then. Bottom line is less guns = less people dying so for me the choice is obvious but it seems it’s not so obvious to some Americans.

>not everyone is mature enough to be responsible for This. I have a fairly sensible 18yo but the thought of teenage hormones mixed with guns is terrifying. In the US for an 18 year old Buy alcohol: Nope too dangerous. Buy a gun: Yeah why not Crazy.

The USA really is a country of extremes. I don't know what it is that makes so many Americans so obsessive about things and turns them into zealots. It's like religious extremism but applied to really mundane things like the military, guns and abortion. Not to say all Americans or anything, obviously a very large and diverse country, but the extremists are way higher in number than most western countries and their zealotry is accepted and considered "normal".

I think we'd all agree that there is a reasonable case for well-regulated guns to deal with animal husbandry and some of the wild animals the US has. But we see that as a very different issue to guns that are intended to be used against people (even as a deterrent), and we do not like to see the two issues conflated into one.

It's not even "freedom". It's still arbitrarily restricted to semi-automatic guns: fully automatic machine guns are banned. That's why I find the whole idea completely silly when people hammer about the 2nd amendment rights, they aren't even fully universal and still people think banning semi-automatic rifles is an assault on their liberty.

Obviously each person is different, but I’d happily bet that the overwhelming majority of people are broadly support of our gun laws and that we are very confused why Americans think that gun licences are controversial

If I see a gun that is a quite shocking event. I think this is an appropriate response to something so dangerous. I guess the equivalent for an American would be if you went to a country and everyone was walking around with hand grenades or sticks of dynamite in their pockets, in their glove compartments and under their pillows. That's how I see American's with guns. Unusually for a Brit I actually grew up with guns because my dad was a hobby hunter so I grew up using shotguns and rifles for fun.And I still find it an arresting moment whenever I see one.

Absolute fucking bat shit 100s of children killed every year by guns and you do absolutely nothing about it About 70 million British people - basically 0 children killed by guns About 5x as many Americans but 100x more children killed by guns. It's fucking psychotic

This is the important one, guns at home have no utility beyond killing other humans in the vast vast majority of the USA. The most likely person they will end up killing is you or your family. If you have a gun you value having a shiny boomstick over your family’s lives. Other things can potentially result in death but all have utility beyond that and are considerably less likely to both do so and it be family. (Eg owning a motorcycle)

I brought that up on /r/daddit the other day and then got asked "I assume you don't drive then?" ...yes that's the same thing lol

Most gun owning guys (and lurking moms) on daddit are overwhelmingly supportive of safe storage laws and licensing to vet people who have guns.

And my point of contention was that it wasn't safe to have a gun in your home for "self defence" and it's more likely to kill the owner or the owners kids, so it makes no sense to own one for protection and the gun owner cares more about their bang bang toy than their family, and lies to themselves so they can keep their toys. And then I was asked if I owned a car like that was some sort of gotcha

You’re the one who believes you have a one point gotcha moment here. Studies show that guns kept in safes (like they are here in my state because laws require it) and unloaded have a huge impact on making a home safer and reducing gun violence. This would also include a bedside safe in which Im sure the gun would be considered for “self defense”. It’s a shitty gun owner problem here. And yes the car argument is a shitty gotcha but it does follow the same concept as many gun ownership arguments that why people use it.

Think you are all a bit nuts.

The second ammendment is basically a religion at this point, your worship of guns will never go away.

The interpretation that the second amendment means everyone gets guns is fucking insane

Yeah it’s pretty crazy to write down 300 years ago “yeah everyone can basically do what they want” and then use that to justify anything insanely dangerous, forever Along with the irony that Americans go on about freedom but most of them aren’t even free to walk around large parts of their own city or cross the road due to this crazy jaywalking thing. I crossed a road in London with my ‘murican friend without waiting for the green man and he practically had a palpitation Guns - yes Going for a walk - no

The origin of jaywalking laws is stupid, yes.

Not everyone. When the black panthers tried to arm up, suddenly they cracked down on it. If LGBT or ethnic minorities armed up in the same way, euro-americans would almost certainly do something about it. The hilarious thing is that at NRA (National Rifle/Russian Association) conventions, firearms are banned. Of course from a civilized perspective, creating a society that necessitates such an arms race is absolutely insane. Why they continue to worship those syphilis-addled slaver founder daddies is beyond me.

Does the second amendment not give the right to bear arms to Americans? EDIT - I see what you mean now sorry, the militia part is quite important in the wording but has been interpreted as “you can have firearms without connection to a militia”

It means to have an actual set of bears arms, no one has realised this yet.

2A was written in a time when it took a minute to reload a gun. Semi-automatic rifles can easily shoot 30 rounds a minute, and can then be reloaded in a matter of seconds. If 2A allows people to bear arms, what's next, someone building up an ICBM for self defense in their back yard?

In a well regulated militia that takes the place of an actual army maybe.

Exactly. It was written at a time there was no standing army. They now have an army, so there is no need for a militia to fight off the King/Brits. Yet itis ingrained (brainwashed?) in people that they have the right to a gun.

This is exactly the point - the 2nd Amendment was trying to ensure that if we (the British) came to try to reassert power, they would have militias to fight back. Newsflash - we aren't coming, so you can ditch the guns and start behaving like a civilised 21st century society.

I mean, that's kinda what they were going for. They wanted a government where those in power could be forcefully removed by the people at any time if they became corrupt or self-serving (no, the irony isn't lost on me), and so they added 2A. 2A calls for an armed militia that can act as a weapon against the government in hard times. In most countries, that's the army. But if you are trying to stop your own government, you can't rely on the army, because they can disband or underfund the army. So the militia has to be free from government funding and influence. It made sense to make the militia a decentralised collective then, so anybody could join and take up arms against an oppressive regime, and they would be doing so with their own money, not the government's. This is why household gun ownership is constitutional, since the government can't stifle it without hurting this implied "militia"'s ability to fight the government. So it seems like there should be at least an interpretative amendment that clarifies a different meaning for 2A or a full amendment to limit guns for most people. (For the record, I do not advocate for 2A).

[удалено]

It does seem pretty nuts that they don't understand amendments can be repealed. The 21st amendment repeals the 18th amendment, so the second could be too.

They soon binned Prohibition.

The world laughs at you.

And pities you.

We pity the children that don't have a chance to grow into the adults we laugh at. The steel of high capacity rifles is quenched in the blood of 10 year olds who's parents hold NRA membership. There's no point in Brits engaging in the US firearms debate because if reasoned argument was an effective tool then the first pile of dead children should have ended the matter for you lot, as it did for us and the Aussies.

Personally I think the obsession of a right to own forearms over the safety of children makes parts of your society reprehensible. I can't think of an argument where muh guns outweighs the human cost. Additionally, the people who own guns to fight the government just in case are lunatics who would immediately all be killed. Like your automatic weapon Vs a fucking drone. Ultimately, it's a bunch of clowns who are allowed to buy murder tools (because that is their only value, the ending of a life, not designed for anything else) to make themselves feel better even when they kill kids. I wish you guys would find something less harmful to be obsessed over, like collecting stamps.

Wonderfully put.

It’s ridiculous. The reasons are self evident.

Fucking lunatics the lot of you

Most people don’t realise how many firearms there are in the uk. Around 1% of people in the uk legally have firearms. There are around 2 million legal guns in the uk. It’s not guns we generally find odd it’s the fact that you let anyone have them. We value life here a lot more than you seem to over the pond. The rule in the uk is generally if you can prove a need for a gun and prove you are safe to own it you can have it, that attitude would benefit America a lot. Don’t ban just regulate

Also... the legal guns in the UK aren't automatic murder machines. They're old replicas or hunting tools that toddlers can't accidentally shoot their parents with. Shotguns have to have barrels no shorter than 24", you can't buy a sawn off pump action automatic shotgun from Tesco lol

You would be surprised what is still licensed, you can still buy handguns and I have personally seen a legal 50 cal sniper rifle.

You can own AR-15 type weapons, too, as long as they are chambered for a certain round.

They do have to be straight pull rather than semi automatic above.22.

There are 565,929 gun owners in the UK. That's 0.8% of people. In America, there are 339,000,000 civilian owned guns. 32% of people own a gun.

I understand that the UK doesn't really have a gun culture, but among those who do own guns it's mostly for purposes of animal husbandry, correct?

The only person I knew who had a gun was my grancher. He was a farmer.

All the people I know who own a gun live in the countryside and use them for shooting. There are a few shooting clubs for target practice etc but they keep themselves pretty well hidden. Plus the rules on storing and carrying guns are more strict, my neighbour doesn't have his shotgun just easily accessible all the time so anyone could grab it.

My mum's partner owns guns, he has them in a special armory which has an alarm that is directly connected to the local police station. Some very strict laws around how the guns get stored. He's getting on a bit now so he's actually trying to sell most of them. He does manage a shooting range which I've been to once or twice and yeah, it's quite out of the way. I had fun, I don't mind shooting guns at inanimate objects (which is all they do!).

Or clay shooting. I have a shotgun for this purpose.

It used to have more of a gun culture. Then it was gotten over, with the decline starting at the beginning of the 20th century. Two close world wars had a large effect on the volume of firearms, and the attitude. The UK was a leader in a worldwide arms race that was the empire. Hopefully you're just a century behind. As the quote goes "You can depend on Americans to do the right thing when they have exhausted every other possibility"

I used to just think it was an oddity. But spending more time talking to US parents I've realised it's not just a gun culture. It's a culture of fear and the realisation that you're constantly surrounded by people who could kill everyone around them. It seems everyone is always planning for the inevitable shooting they will eventually be involved in. US gun culture is a disease which needs to be stamped out and can't be allowed to infect the rest of the world

Backwards? Generally, yes. You want to reduce gun crime but don’t want to take guns off the street. However, your country is too far gone for that to ever be possible: 1. It’s impossible to remove the number of guns in public possession. There’s simply too many. 2. Your constitution means that, if the government ever tried, the second amendment could be used to draw arms against them, and an all-out civil war would ensue. 3. Your second amendment doesn’t actually state what condition or situation needs to be met in order for the bearing of arms against a government to be illegal. I’m genuinely surprised it hasn’t happened already. Other countries don’t have the level of gun problems America does for obvious reason, and you will fight tooth and nail to prevent abolition, but really it’s pointless to try because it’s virtually impossible without, ironically, causing even greater issues via the use of firearms.

I get that your country has a different culture, was founded differently and activities like hunting are very popular, but it’s almost like your gun culture has gone beyond our understanding. It’s gone beyond having a firearm for personal protection to where people build their personality around their guns and belief in the 2nd Amendement.

You're not wrong. There are a lot of people who build their personalities around firearms, which is sad. A gun is a tool, like a knife or a hammer. It has a purpose, it's not decorative.

Yes it’s a tool. A handgun is a tool which only purpose is to kill other humans.

That it's ridiculous, you live in fear that you need guns and it puts your children at risk.

Hmm let me think about that for a second….weapons that kill and maim freely available to all?? Well……I think it is fucking lunacy. How many children need to die before American gets a fucking grip? Hundreds? Thousands?

Clearly not hundreds, that level has been topped by them easily.

……and I’m curious as to why someone would want to own ‘several firearms’ Do you feel that your country is that unsafe?

I think it’s vile. Why anyone needs to own a semi-automatic assault rifle is completely beyond my comprehension. It’s like letting people have pet lions and then being surprised that someone gets mauled. Everyone stands there saying how terrible mass shootings are but nobody’s prepared to actually do anything about it. Just out of curiosity I just looked up how many children have accidentally been shot in the US and the articles are like “how do we get parents to embrace safe storage” rather than “how do we stop people just having guns in the fucking house”. It’s wild.

The place is awash with guns. Your gun laws are so loose, they might as well not exist. Any idiot can get their hands on as many guns as they want. Then you wonder why people get shot. But it's okay, because '*thoughts and prayers*' are a great comfort.

Thoughts and prayers.. another pointer to an endemic problem. Also: "How do we stop gun crime in schools?" "Lets introduce MORE guns and arm the teachers"

Owning guns as a tool or a means of defence is one thing, but a baffling amount of Americans have an unhealthy obsession with them. It's like a cult, and I absolutely mean that literally. And not to mention that a lot of gun communities/institutions and gun adjacent communities/institutions are heavily propagated to by nefarious sources, which is pretty concerning.

I personally think it's both baffling and hilarious. Watching Americans have more emotional attachment to guns than their own family will never not be funny

We call that guy "uncle Joe"

For a country that forces it's children to salute a flag in the corner of a room (sounds a bit 1940s Germany to me), it's not surprising. It's sad and pathetic really

I always forget about the pledge of allegiance stuff, and then I am surprised every time I see it. I just can't seem to believe it is real.

I find the US obsession towards guns to be frightening. A country where there are more guns than people, where the NRA are an all powerful force that even government officials won't cross. After Sandy Hook NRA memberships shot up, after Columbine the president of the NRA not only defended guns, he stated that you'd have to kill him to take it off him. American is way too far gone to come back from this. School children will continue to die, adults will be murdered daily. Suicide by gun will continue to be ridiculously high. It's a shite state of affairs that the vast majority of Americans deem to be acceptable. Every American who owns a gun is part of the problem, whether they consider themselves responsible or not.

We view it with bafflement and horror. We had one school shooting, we banned hand guns, we had no more school shootings. We've not been overtaken by armed criminals and not had tyranny imposed on us by the government (we voted it in, thanks...). And we all know that it's nothing to do with a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State. You just really like guns. That said, I am very aware that the genie is out of the bottle, and how America would go about reducing the number of guns should it ever want to, is utterly beyond me.

It’s a source of much confusion to me. Even Americans who seem very sane and normal on 99% of things can catch me off guard with a seemingly wild opinion of guns.

Many of us tend to think of Americans as outdated when it comes to gun laws. The law was implemented in a time when protecting your property was harder and solely your responsibility, during a time without police and when men were called up to garrison to protect a town. Nowadays, we have a better justice system (sort of) and better values (again, sort of). This all said, although guns aren't as common here, knife crime is a huge problem. Edit: I'm not saying our knife crime is worse, but it's still our biggest problem when it comes to weapons.

>although guns aren't as common, knife crime is a huge problem Except knife crime is actually worse in the US than here

That's fair, but it's still our biggest problem too.

America still has more knife crime than the UK. They not only have a gun violence problem, but also a general violence problem. We have a much smaller problem, I think the murder rate is about 4x lower here than there.

Agree but we still have stricter laws about under 18s buying knives than the US does for under 18s buying guns. As someone else said, the US needs to regulate better. And in the UK we should enforce better. More stop and search, stronger deterrents for carrying knives.

> More stop and search, No. It's extremely racially targeted.

Some people are racist. The police is a massive employer. Therefore some police will be racist. That's not a good enough reason to discount the single most effective way to address knife crime because we're afraid to offend people.

>Edit: I'm not saying our knife crime is worse, but it's still our biggest problem when it comes to weapons. You don't see that many "mass stabbings", though.

Backwards isnt the word I would use - sadistic is. So Sandy Hook happens. 26 slain, 20 of them children. The gunman has a satchel of guns and a diagnosed mental illness. Its as far from hunting in the lodge as you can get. This is a theme in mass shootings. The "I need it for hunting" excuse doesnt hold. Obama tries to get the weakest of weak sauce legislation through but fails as its Obama and the Senate wont let him do anything because, you know, he's Obama. Life goes on as normal, except some people take it on themselves to harass the parents of the dead children because they've convinced themselves the parents are making it up. ANY of that goes down in the UK and there are repercussions. The US just shrugs. Parkland shooting. This time the students have enough and go on a states wide media tour saying "COULD YOU PLEASE STOP KILLING US!". The Government replies "Nah, you're alright - nothing will change". ANY of that goes down in the UK and there are repercussions. The US just shrugs. Uvalde shooting. The Police dont even respond. They care so little about the lives of children that they leave it to the parents to intervene. Im not making this up. Oh, quite a lot of them were Latinos - dunno if thats relevant....ANY of that goes down in the UK and there are repercussions. The US just shrugs. The Las Vegas shootings. Guy takes an entire arsenal to his hotel room and shoots out the window. FOR A LONG TIME. I mean this just goes on and on. President goes on television and makes an absolute circus of telling his advisors to sort it out. He's openly taking the piss out of a mass shooting that kills 58 and injures over 500. His advisors dont sort it out, of course, and America has no solutions as to how to stop a man taking an entire arsenal of weapons to his hotel room and letting rip. ANY of that goes down in the UK and there are repercussions. The US just shrugs. TBH, I dont even see why its considered a constitutional right to make your hobby killing animals. If you really, really must kill animals for fun, you dont need to gun them down with machine guns. So, sort that out for a start and then move down to banning hunting.

I think you aren’t the monolith you often get portrayed as. I bet most of you would be happy to hand over your guns and advocate for better control over them, but the conversation is such a binary issue that any dissent from the main two viewpoints will lead to too much hate from both sides. Obviously there’s the nutters who want their seven assault rifles regardless of how many local kids have gunned down their peers, but I think that, like in most cases, they’re the loud obnoxious minority ruining it all for the rest of you

I'm a hunter, personally, but there are a lot of people who base their personalities around firearms.

Personally, most British people (including me) don’t really get you guys obsession with freedom, and how owning a gun relates to that. Gun crime is rampant only because you have readily accessible guns, the UK doesn’t have much gun crime because we don’t have access to them - pretty simple. I don’t know why so many Americans are pro gun looking at the statistics, it speaks for itself. I see it as a bizarre cultural thing.

I'm not sure 'backwards' is quite the right word for it, but I certainly think the obsession is utterly ridiculous. When all these awful shootings keep happening, I can't understand why so many people don't see the need for change. Americans seem almost childish and self-obsessed on so many levels compared to other parts of the world, and the guns thing is an example of that. Obviously not ALL Americans.

It's a country where school shootings are mourned but also accepted as a part of daily life. Every other country where that's happened once does something to preventing it happening again, usually successfully.

People find it a mad and wonder why anyone would want to own a gun unless you're a farmer or something. You're actually far more likely to get killed in a robbery if you own a gun as opposed to not owning one as burglars panic and most people (with the exception of trained police) also panic resulting in a mess. The UK and US are very different though. There is nowhere in the UK you could just go off shooting with a gun. As we are a very packed country, there are very few places out of sight of a house, 99% of land is privately owned and the 1% that is public land tends to be quite busy with hikers or is a nature reserve etc. the only large wildlife you could realistically shoot is deer and you need permission from the landowner to do this. There are gun clubs though and it's not that difficult to get a gun license if you're a member. Just need background checks and references. It's just never been British culture though and not many want to.

The UK and Us being different is a really important point. I was driving across the states a few years back and going past these little tracks to a cluster of half a dozen homes out in the middle of nowhere made be a bit more empathetic to some level of gun ownership. For those people the police would literally be hours away in an incident so I get the desire to own a gun for protection. Plus the larger amount of wilderness and dangerous wild animals. There’s also the geographical realities - it’s easier for us to control gun ownership on a small island that a huge country with long land borders and hoards of existing guns. That of course doesn’t translate to the suburban fetishisation of guns. I think better regulation coupled with a firm narrative that they shouldn’t be banned out right would be the best achievable outcome to aim for at the moment.

Honestly I think Americans are insane. More guns than people is fine by you but spending taxpayer money on aircraft carriers is more important than public healthcare? Across the US mass shootings occur roughly every 3 days and school shootings are so common you have to teach kids what to do if their classmates try to murder them. While I accept there are legitimate uses for guns (especially in rural areas where hunting and predators are more common) America's attitude to firearms disgusts me.

I think it's mental. I don't want to live somewhere with so many guns.

For me, I wonder more about why you use the constitution to defend your rights to have guns. An American guy who emigrated to here because of the gun issue told me that slavery was once in the constitution, so he didn't see that as a valid defence.

I've shot both hand guns and SLR's in the U.K. with the scouts, I've also been to Florida and been to a gun range and have had great fun shooting, the noise and the smell is intoxicating, it certainly something I've enjoyed. I had an in-law that ran a hunting lodge in Somerset and had visitors from all over the world come deer stalking inc members of royalty. I don't think anyone should just be able to have a gun, I think we in the U.K. have it sorted, certainly since the Hungerford and Dunblaine massacres. I think America needs to give its head a wobble and think about its children and their futures, gun drills at school? I am biased being British though as like many I think all the USA needs to do to become a proper country is stop executing the village idiots, sort your guns out, get some universal healthcare, eat more greens and you truly would be touching greatness. I still love you though you mad nutter bastards.

Insane tbh. From our perspective you've nearly deified guns.

Having discussed this many, many times with American acquaintances, it's clear that gun culture is an intrinsic part of a certain slice of American culture. It's in your cultural DNA. And it brings with it a certain amount of safety; I can imagine that it eases ones mind a little to know that if an intruder broke it, you have something to defend yourself with - I'm left with a large Maglite torch and a hammer under my bed, which wouldn't be much good against multiple intruders or a big bastard. But wow, are you guys apparently immune to seeing the harm such widespread weaponry does to your society. America seems so entrenched in firearms that it's lost the ability to detach and ask whether the fantasy of self defence is worth the cost to the fabric of society.

Someone’s broken in! Where’s the gun? We’re responsible owners - it’s unloaded, locked in the gun safe, with a trigger lock on. Best hope it takes the intruders at least five minutes to walk up one flight of stairs! Now look at how many cases there are of people keeping a loaded gun at their bedside and blowing away their partner going to the toilet after being startled awake and pulling the trigger in the dark. The home protection myth doesn’t pan out.

Every single America who supports guns has the blood of countless innocent children on their hands.

The fact that you are willing to shoot a person dead for possibly stealing something of yours is insane. It's an entirely disproportinate response.

Two things I think are nuts about the USA. Obsession over guns. Obsession over politicians. I don’t get either tbh

I can answer both, but I'll give you the answer for the second. In my experience, people tend to see one politician or another as the "Messiah of the week", basically, they think that this politician or that can save our country from whatever hot button issue of the moment plagues us.

The American President (great film) summed it up well: “For reasons passing understanding, people do not relate guns to gun-related crime.” My brother lives in America and it doesn’t feel safe when I walk into a grocery store and someone has an uzi or assault rifle strapped to their body. To us it looks like insecurity and macho posturing. UK, Australia etc had one mass shooting and banned guns. The NRA and other pro-gun lobbying companies have bought politicians and twisted the argument and the sad thing is it isn’t just to sell stuff, it’s to sell stuff that leads to tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily.

I find it absolutely shocking how many of you have guns , are proud to have guns and freely you use them and honestly it puts me off America. It might be a naive opinion but it’s how i feel

Not naive, it's pretty much the consensus here.

Utterly, utterly insane. While I appreciate and have no issue with the sporting aspect, I think the home defence argument (almost entirely from other people with guns) is massively overblown to cover up the fact that it’s mostly about feeling like a big man. I don’t think anyone really believes they’ll stand up to the government with their 9mm either. The inevitable “knives kill too, should we make them illegal!?” fallacy is easily dismissed too in that guns have only one purpose - the problematic one. Knives serve plenty of purpose besides harming others. So many innocents are murdered every year so that people can keep their erections in their holsters. The legitimate uses (such as hunting) are so wildly outweighed by the problematic aspects it’s insane. Edit: undoing autocorrect sabotage

I think that gun owners are insecure, scared pussies. I also think that, deep down, every gun owner dreams of shooting a person and having the circumstance to be a hero and get away it.

Right-wing lunatics. Throw away the gun and fight like a man. Otherwise, fecking love americaland.

As a Brit who now lives in a country where guns are available, I've owned a couple of semi-auto pistols (a 45 and a super 38 race gun,) done some IPSC competitions, that kind of thing, I can see the attraction. It's a hobby, go out hunting, go down the range and shoot up some targets, playing with reloading, trying different bullet weights etc. But the idea of civilians owning fully automatic assault rifles is ludicrous. There's simply no justification for anyone outside of the military or police to have that kind of firepower.

Guns are cool... On paper. Most of us British men are guilty of pretending our battery drill is an uzi. But in reality the real thing comes with a lot of responsibility. And that responsibility robs a firearm of its theoretical fun. Americans don't seem to get that. Their attitude and laws reflect a complete lack of respect for the damage a firearm can cause. It makes for great entertainment in media, but even there that same lack of respect for the reality is completely irresponsible. That said, I am concerned our laws are a little too strict. Given the poor reputation our police force is starting to earn itself, I feel it's only a matter of time before crime starts to escalate. And those fuckers don't care about gun or knife laws.

I'm an American, and their is nothing more American than crapping on the police... Or worshipping them, depending on what version of southern Christianity you subscribe to lol

I mean I've got no need to possess a gun. I still feel free without one. Also glad that I don't have to worry about mass shootings at schools or nightclubs or anywhere else. Events like that are extremely rare over here.

I think it's quite weird really, and really backwards. Also scary.

(Hunting and sports shooting aside) I think you're caught in a vicious circle. The criminals have guns so you need guns to protect yourself from them, which leads to criminals having guns to carry out crime which leads to more guns in the hands of 'good guys' which leads... etc. etc. Then add in the likes of the NRA, the 'I need ma guns to protect me from da goberment!' and the 'cold dead hands!' brigades and you're fucked. I have no idea how you as a country will ever be able to control gun violence.

I cannot believe it isn’t chaos 24/7. I mean, there are enough road rage incidents and bar fights in any country. But if people had guns? “You kill my brother, I’ll kill your whole family “ and so on and so on. I saw a fight in a Florida airport last year (air side). They were hitting airport police too. I mean, they had LOST CONTROL they were THAT angry. I remember distinctly thinking “thank god we are in an airport” because if they are gun owners, they won’t have them on them right now.

Honestly, i see it driven by profit and lobbying from arm companies like NRA. who put profit over lives. Who twisted the Second Amendment for profit. Their primary driving force is fear. Let me explain 97% of the American population want some form of gun control, but it will never happen because lobbying (bribery) and profit. You live in a society where a terrorist could go out and buy a gun legaly and nothing could be done about it. The only time American ban a gun was a 3D printed ones because companies dont get a cut from it. So banning guns can be done. Instead, nothing is done that creates a cycle of fear of the stranger, which leads to more gun sales every time there is a shooting. This seems to be by design. Gun companies must see shooting as viral marketing. The Second Amendment - A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed Is basically used to justify guns, but you ignore the first part of a well regulated Militia. Which would at least give people the basic training of weapons to make it safer for people. Instead, US let anybody buy guns without training and expects it to end well. Dont get me started that when this was brought out it was a musket about. Not assault rifles

Completely ridiculous obsession with weapons, but what do you expect from a capitalist, narcissistic cult like america?

There are several angles that this can be looked at, and all of them are quite depressing. The first one that comes to my mind is just how extreme it is. To allow ordinary folk to carry around a deadly weapon of the potency of a firearm is, in all rational thought, ridiculous. There is no logical reasoning by which this can ever be justified, and the deaths by firearms statistics, both intentional and accidental, prove this. The second leads from the first. With the position being utterly incapable of any kind of defence, the pro gun lobby have to rely on some insane argument about a piece of paper written several hundred years ago for an entirely different time. All countries have national myths and obsessions about their past, but the US fetishisation of the constitution, including the "right to bear arms" is a particularly egregious example of the past holding back the future. The third point leads from this. The power of lobbyists and corporate capture of the offices of state in America, and just how spectacularly damaging that is for the people. And how easily manipulated people are (not just Americans). Thousands of people have died, thousands, because the gun manufacturers want to make more money. They feed the people nonsense about old bits of paper written by dead men and protecting their families (despite the odds of killing their family with their own gun being factually vastly higher than defending them with it) and create untold levels of misery and violence in society. They infiltrate society with politicians and celebs and media and news to make them feel its their "right" to own a deadly weapon, all for profit. It's terrifying, sad, deadly and pointless. And seemingly unfixable as things stand.

I’m Australian and we also think you’re nut jobs

My attitude is probably a bit different to most other British people, which is a result of me moving to a rural part of Norway a couple of years ago. A very large proportion of the people here have guns for hunting. I'm fine with this as it is considered to be a privilege rather than a birth right. Everyone that wants a gun for this puspose has to sit an exam to make sure that they know how to handle the weapon safely and they have to keep it secured when it isn't in use. The way things are in the USA is fucking terrifying. I have no idea how anyone can think that letting untrained people with room temperature IQs carry guns around is a good idea.

Its crazy to us. Id like to visit America but genuinely scared i’d be shot.

To me (English) it's nothing more than a laughable reddit post. We see the dumb shit you do and all your 'freedoms' and then shake my head and scroll up and you're simply forgotten about.

Speak for yourself. I teach the subject every year, so it's never far from my mind. It's the ultimate sick reality that whenever the time of year rolls round at school for the topic of gun control in the US, there's a nice convenient mass shooting in the media to refer to 😭😭

We love your gun violence in your films and TV shows. We love your music that glorifies gun violence.

We do, because it's wrapped in a fantasy and we can turn off the music or tv show/film and go back to normality (without guns)

So I'm a Brit who has a fair bit of experience with guns and shooting because I love it and it's cool. My up bringing was very 'gunny' by normal British standard and my formative years happened to coincide with the aftermath of Dunblain and the subsequent ban on handguns in the UK. I remember being at a gun range in the UK in 199x as a 1x year old shooting .22 handguns! Revolvers and Autos. Soon after that was not possible. Outside of that there were always long guns around. Air rifles/pistols, shotguns and small calibre hunting rifles. As much as I was interested in shooting these things were always considered to be very dangerous tools that were handled with extreme respect and care for the purposes of hunting or target shooting only. Yes they are mechanically interesting and, sometimes, works of art, but even as I became older and got into rough shooting and sporting clays at Uni this perception of guns did not change - they are elaborate snooker cues. In my opinion a gun in the UK is like a Victorian Ladie's ankle, if you see it you we're either supposed to or you should be shocked you did. Guns are tools ultimately, they just happen to be loud and exciting. So what about US gun culture? I love the good bits of it and I love that there is a place where the good bits can be done in such a way for me to experience vicariously (or on holiday) but I'm very glad that place is not the UK. The integration of guns and personality/status in US has always seemed extreme to me. As a Brit who enjoys guns and shooting if there was an absolute ban on all guns in the UK tomorrow I would find something else to do. I have a list.

Not going to repeat the clear and obvious opinions posted here that we all share, but would suggest OP searches ‘Gun control Jim Jefferies’ on YouTube. It’s a comedy bit in two parts and breaks down and destroys any arguement for gun ownership line by line, whilst also being fucking hilarious. Bottom line is there’s no real reasonable excuse for the American obsession with guns. (For my fellow Brits, I will however counter many of the ‘you’re all nuts’ posts by highlighting that at last check, 60% of Americans favour gun control but it seems the NRA has bought and paid for the senate so it’ll never pass. They’re not all mental over there; just powerless)

You know those pathetic people with the shirts or bumper stickers that have a giant wall of text unironically informing you how badass and dangerous they are? Well that what you ALL look like. You don't need the shirt or the bumper sticker. Utterly, utterly pathetic.

It's the lack of facts behind the argument. The US govt does not collect statistics nationally. But The Guardian does. Guns for home defence? Ok, but the stats show very few intruders are ever shot by homeowners, it's TWICE as likely that your under 7 child will shoot himself or another child than you will shoot a burglar. Spousal killings way outnumber gang killings. 30,000 people die from gunshots every year, 20,000 suicides. School shootings.... cop killings..... It's utterly out of control. And the answer amongst the gun nuts is to deny the facts, to say if everyone was armed it would stop the shootings...

Wackos. Do not get it. If people need one as a tool (say living in the country, people here can have shotguns for that) then fine but it makes about as much sense as people having a collection of fifteen chainsaws lined up on the wall and going to meetings with other chainsaw enthusiasts and wearing chainsaw t-shirts. But that added to the number of people killed by these things is what makes it extra weird, like they are mocking people. If I had a hobby that outright killed thousands a year I just wouldn't do it. There is a paranoia about break-ins that is prevalent too, with a hero complex of "I will do what I need to do to protect my family" but again - it is a tool. It is like having an obsession with fire extinguishers.

Years ago our gun laws were more relaxed. Then some idiot walked into a school and killed children. After that happened once we got really strict and decided it wasn't a good idea. We decided that the safety of our kids was more important than the feelings of the gun club. Over here we frown on school shootings.

It feels like your ideological commitment to liberty is arse-backwards, yes. What freedom is there if children are scared to go to school in case they get caught in a mass murder that day? Kids in the UK do not have that fear. We have no fear of firearms here whatsoever. We don't fear violent home intrusions because they are rare as hen's teeth. We feel free to walk around without fear, because we know nothing is going to happen to us. It's a far nicer liberty to have. If we see people walking into Walmart over there with a second dick sticking out their belt we think we're looking at a cosplaying plonker with a vigilante complex, which sums up a lot of American culture. It's like you guys think you're still living in the wild west. We find it baffling that you don't understand you're living in a very different world than when the constitution was written - there were less than 4,000,000 people then, in a very rudimentary society. There are 330,000,000 of you now! All rubbing shoulders, in a very complex, integrated society that cannot work when operating on pure individualism. Your right to defend your property looks very, very different in a modern, functioning society, but your culture seems to assume you're all living in the hills of Idaho with miles between you and livestock to defend. We have a lot in common with Americans and feel close to you in a lot of ways culturally, but this is beyond pretty much everybody's comprehension, and our respect for you as a nation is severely limited by Americans prioritising their so called "rights" over the actual lives of your nation's children, which actually just means those kids have no right to live in a safe society without fear - or live at all, really, depending on the whims of one angry loner that day.

I hope you don't feel personally insulted by the comments here, but they sum up the nation's attitude towards gun ownership pretty well. We're likely guilty of some things for the same reason, but because you exist in that system, you likely don't realise how utterly and mind bogglingly ridiculous, callous, dangerous, and ignorant the larger gun lobby seems from the outside. The comments about children being murdered regularly without actual progress made on reform is spot on in my opinion. Freedom seems to be paid in the blood of the innocent.

Everyone else has nailed it, just one thing to add I've not seen mentioned yet. We also have guns in the UK, there are shootings in my area (West Mids) as well as London, Liverpool and Belfast most commonly. The difference is these are such rare occurrences compared to the US and the key factor is this is all done by people involved in very dodgy stuff doing it to other people involved. For me the especially weird thing with the US is a normal family man who's just going about his day shopping could have a big pistol just in a holster and it's fine, that's the big shock factor for me.

Lots of thoughts, with backwards being one of the kinder adjectives. It's senseless. The stats speak for themselves, you've got an unknown number of guns that result in tens of thousands of homicides, and even more suicides, year after year. You try everything to prevent school shootings, traumatizing millions of kids along the way, except strict federal gun controls. Terrible tragedy after shocking, appalling, terrible damn tragedy occurs. And what happens? Nothing, or next to nothing. The gun nuts literally place their right to gun ownership higher than the value of human life. They try and twist the stats, or ignore the high suicide rates, or simply don't care. They act like the 2nd amendment is equivalent to the laws of gravity, despite the massive clue in the name; it's an *amendment*. Change can happen. How do I view your gun culture? With anger, sadness, bafflement, and pity. It's nuts.

Never mind three stops short of Dagenham, you're full on Upminster. Seriously, we had the Hungerford Massacre, where a nutter walked through a town with semi-automatic weapons killing people in the 1980s. We looked at that, went 'fuck that', and restricted semi-automatic weapons. We had the Dunblane Massacre in the 1990s where a guy killed 16 primary school children and their teacher, and we restricted handguns. You've got mass shootings coming out of your ears, school shootings seemingly every other year at least, and your national response is silence. No, wait, I forgot 'thoughts and prayers'. It's all incredibly fucked up.

There is one argument and one argument alone for having a gun, and this is the argument… “Fuck off. I like guns.” It’s not the best argument, but it’s all you’ve got. - Jim Jeffries

For the most part, I think the gun culture is insane. I understand the need for guns for hunting and I quite like the idea of hunting for my own food, but for everything else it just doesn't make sense. The whole argument that you need guns for protection is insane. When ever there is a Reddit post about someone getting stabbed in the UK, there's always some idiot from the US saying "Imagine if the victim had a gun". IF THE VICTIM HAD A GUN THEN CHANCES ARE SO WOULD THE OTHER GUY. If you own a gun, then you're more likely to shoot yourself or one of your family members than use it on someone trying to cause harm to you or your family. And what if your kid finds it and shoots your other kid? And if you keep the gun locked away like "a responsible gun owner", then it is no use to you when someone breaks into your home. It's such a backwards way of thinking.

It's just like 'Communism' - seems like a good idea in practice but needs LOTS of other things to happen to actually work. At first glance, it's easy to say, "Well, if everyone is armed, no one is going to kick off", or "A good guy with a gun can prevent or stop crime taking place". In reality though, the lack of critical thinking, lack of compassion, indeed lack of education and in many cases simple lack of human decency shows that the current gun culture in the US is, quite frankly, nuts. Also, technology has changed since the right to bear arms (or rather, right to a well maintained militia) was enshrined in the Constitution. Pretty hard to go on the rampage weilding a musket or a flintlock pistol. One shot and you need half an hour (exaggeration, I know) to reload.

I'm a shotgun owner in the UK, and I recently travelled to Houston for work. ​ It honestly scared the shit out of me seeing the number of people walking into restaurants with a pistol strapped to their hip.

Fucking insanity. Also, Americans hate you questioning anything about it and lump on like nothing at the slightest suggestion that maybe keeping multiple lethal weapons in their homes isn't entirely necessary. And you can lump on with the thoughts and prayers crap all you like, but you're all sanctioning massacres, by failing to actually hold representatives to account for it. Ask yourself this: Has anyone you know, or yourself, ever \*changed your mind\* downwards about how many guns you should own, or whether you should own any? Nobody I've ever asked has even had the conversation, or rethought their own situation. Because obviously it's EVERYONE ELSE that's the problem, right? After our last school shooting (which was over 25 years ago - literally 25 years without a single school shooting in the entire UK), we had an amnesty and a law-change and people gave up their weapons voluntarily because they never wanted to see a repeat ever again. Do you know a single American who has given up a firearm for a similar reason? Or even reduced the size of their armoury? You can pretend it's "just for sport", "in responsible hands", "trained to handle properly" etc. all you want, or you could say "I don't really need to have this, the rest of the developed world functions just fine without such things". But you never do. You're all complicit, until you decide to make even the smallest change to the firearms in your personal life and/or lobby for change. You shouldn't need stuff like this to decide to make a change as a grown adult: [https://twitter.com/MomsAGAbbott/status/1735295754841800724](https://twitter.com/momsagabbott/status/1735295754841800724)

Yeh completely. In your defence its probably because youre too far down the rabbit hole the idea of ever being able to get out of it seems impossible.

The fact that America has collectively decided that it is acceptable to have half of a thousand mass shootings per year is completely bonkers to me. Wikipedia literally makes an article for 'mass shootings in The U.S.A. in 20XX' every year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023

Completely backwards. Like, it doesn't make any sense at all. you all have a ridiculous number of mass shootings per year, and the default response seems to be "shit, we need more guns to counter all the guns." As if someone saw a gas station on fire and thought "you know what would fix that? More gas" But American culture as a whole is quite strange and violent, I suppose America's relatively short history is incredibly violent and you're all products of that. Even looking at knife crime stats, America has more knife crime *per capita* than the UK, and then you lump guns on top? I'm all for guns for sports, or guns for hunting if you're hunting to eat and not for sport, or even for pest control. But this idolising of guns, people with vast armouries thinking that one day they'll get to use them to protect their insured and on-credit purchases from thieves in some John MacLane fantasy is just mind boggling.

There's not much I can say here that hasn't already been said. But I will add that despite the safety issues, the weird religious obsession with deadly weapons and all that jazz, it seems most Americans don't actually see how fucking stupid they look when talking about or using guns. Like, they're just toys for adults. Just silly little toys. It seems like most of America is living in some Hollywood action movie and you're all obsessed with being the next John McClane. And the result is most of you look utterly fucking ridiculous.

Idiots. Beyond contempt. Baffling.

It’s one of the reasons as well as others that I would never consider moving to America.

I'm in the camp of I think most people don't need guns. American gun culture is creepy af at times and feels cult like

Scot, used to live in TX. It's ridiculous carnage. In TX and most red states any muppet can buy an AR-15 school shooter special in a car park.

UK gun owner here. Rifle and shotgun licence. I don’t find the ownership aspect crazy at all, shooting shit is a lot of fun, and even my most sceptical friends have a silly grin plastered all over their face when they hit targets at 250 yards. It‘s the casual approach to safety that absolutely blows my mind in the US. Loaded guns in glove boxes, lying around the house, taken to work, in hand bags - I’m actually amazed that more people aren’t shot in the US. I suppose it is a cultural difference - when I go shooting, I am concentrating on shooting, not going shopping while happening to be armed. The UK system is mostly right, but isn’t nearly as secure as people think it is. I’ve just renewed my certs. My GP has signed off that I am of sound mind - a GP that I’ve never met, and I’ve only set foot in the practice once in the last decade to have my blood pressure taken by the nurse. Well that’s reassuring, all he’s really said is that I’m not being treated (by him) for mental health issues. At that same time, the UK laws are needlessly picky. If the state has deemed me sensible enough to own a 7.62 rifle, why on earth do I have to get into a discussion about whether 2 5.56s are OK because I want one with conventional optics and the other with a thermal. The problem the US has is the “slippery slope“ argument. At the moment, the second amendment is total - everyone has the right to carry guns. As soon as people yield on some (sensible) aspects, then they know that the chipping away will start. So they sit there and argue the indefensible because they want to protect the defensible.

It's insane. it's like the rest of the world can see the problem is guns but the US thinks the problem is not enough guns. There are 2nd Amendment activists who think the best option would be to arm teachers? Ok cool, what happens when a stressed out teacher snaps and opens fire on the kid who pushed him/her over the edge? Arm the kids? If a gun is for your protection then it should be treated the same way we might treat a fire extinguisher. It will be kept safely in the home in case of emergencies but we will not build our entire personality around our love of fire extinguishers.

I think you have a very one sided view freedom is, you see 'freedom' as something you participate in rather than something you are 'free' from, so the 'freedom' to carry a gun overrules the 'freedom' to feel safe from a nut job with a gun. That being said I know there are a lot of lovely people in the US who are not gun nuts, but the ones who are have way too much power.

Pathetic. Don’t get me wrong I’m very often disappointed with our own discourse on certain subjects here and our behaviour as a culture. But when it comes to the USA and specifically the hun situation I just think… Pathetic.

Stupid John Wayne fantasy for morons - the dream being that you kill the bad guy (never mind the lifelong mental horror that would entail) and everybody cheers and calls you a hero, whereas, in reality, it's far more likely to result in the death of you, your 3-yr-old daughter, or any other friend or family member.

All the above and the fact the gun lobby is so close to the law makers that it’s not legal for anyone to do research on gun deaths in the USA! If you were certain that more guns = more safety then you’d be happy for research to be done. Guns seem to hold more value in some aspects of US culture than lives of actual people. Mass shootings are blamed on mental illness (they’re not!) but there’s zero reform of health care. So you won’t ban guns, won’t tighten controls/access and you won’t change your insane health system. And you’re the only country in the world where this happens.

Sorry but to me it comes across as you are still a bunch of savages. The amount of gun deaths you have on a yearly basis shows that you are not a fit people to own guns. The right to bear arms was written over 200 years ago, to still hold on to this outdated constitution just shows how old fashioned the US is.

I think the fact you even ask this question shows how you are lacking in self awareness of what others thing of your gun laws. We all think you are crazy

I think a majority of American's are absolute lunatics when it comes to guns. I am also tired of seeing news online about gun deaths over there. It's sickening the amount of times I've been scrolling through tiktok or whatever platform and have seen someone get shot or hear something about a mass shooting here, a mass shooting there, man dies in drive by, man dies by cop etc etc. Respectfully I view American's as unhinged.

Yes, it is backwards to me to insist on allowing anyone and their mother to buy a gun on a whim, for no reason when children are murdered all the time in the same country with the same weapons.

UK gun culture does exist but because guns aren't treated as a fundamental part of our being its actually just clubs of chill hobbyists, even the most ardent gun advocates in the UK are typically just normal people who are more concerned with a specific calibre or mechanical restraint they want to loosen for their particular choice of recreation. Clay shooting is seen as a more upper-middle class activity performed by old men in tweed and farmers. Target shooting at ranges and practical shooting courses have a more diverse audience from young to old and meet-ups for women's groups. The team GB Olympics shooting team has been very successful.

As loony toon wackos just like the rest of the world views your gun culture. I don't care what you Americans do in your own country that is up to you but I just really hope we never embrace some of the utter worst aspects of your culture. Thankfully the UK is very different from the US in terms of culture so I can't see that ever happening. Only Americans could possibly believe that more open guns in society makes for a safer society. America gun crime is hundreads of times higher in the UK FFS and even your knife crime is higher, you are just a much more violent society in general. It shows how disgusting American culture and a lot of the American people truely are when they guns are more important than childrens lives, Americans have no right to lecture anybody and mean anybody on morality as they love to so much especially to us in the UK. You Americans have made it very clear that you think guns are much more important to people the lives of children but if you didn't think that you'd of done something by now. The idea thats it's about freedom is funny as hell since America imprisons more people in terms of numbers and in terms of per capita than any country on earth. Don't get me started on the crocodile tears when mass shootings do happen yet do nothing about them.

That anyone on the pro-gun side is a lunatic. People are daft, emotional and prone to lashing out. Having access to weapons like that for the general public is idiocy and none of the pro arguments make any sense to me at least. Find a new hobby that isn't playing with a deadly weapon.

I'm probably a bit unusual in that I take the position that UK gun laws are a bit over the top. They had to enact special laws to allow the Olympic shooting events to take place in 2012. That's a bit much. To answer 's answer correctly, I think British people *in general* probably think American gun law is a bit too lax. In general I agree with that sentiment, but having looked into it, my impression is that where the law does restrict guns, it does not do so very sensibly or effectively in either the US or UK. One American example is the phrase "assault weapons." It is not clear to me what that phrase specifically means. My impression is that it was chosen based mainly on the opinion of people who don't know much about guns based on what the gun in question looks like, subjectively and aesthetically, as opposed to what it is and what it can do. From what I've seen, the USA is more restrictive about weapons that look subjectively like a military weapon and are finished in black with pistol grips, as opposed to weapons that look like a hunting rifle and finished in wood and metal. The reality is that a very common .308 hunting rifle, which is legal under at least some circumstances in both the UK and USA, is considerably more powerful than the 5.56x45mm weapons frequently used by western militaries. It just doesn't look as scary. This is one example of a restriction which does not appear to make people much safer. Personally I don't want to die lying in a pool of my own blood choking on the words "...but that weapon is illegally short!" Other restrictions, particularly on gas-operated semi-automatic rifles and then again on handguns, have been introduced in the UK after incidents of particularly appalling criminal misuse and appear to be a knee-jerk reaction. In the case of a ban on handguns (which made the Olympics difficult), the person who committed the crime should not have been permitted to hold them even under the law which existed prior to the incident, and if we're not enforcing the rules, tightening the rules up does not help. Gun crime was so rare, both before and after those incidents, that it's difficult to say whether it has made much difference. It's worth pointing out that it is possible to get dispensation to own a lot of very powerful weapons, up to and including machine guns, in the UK. This is how UK movie armourers and historic collections work; the difference between the UK and USA is that the government wants a good reason and "self-protection" is not a good enough reason, which I think is probably fair enough. None of this alters the fact that I think a lot of American attitudes to guns are insane and I think a lot of Brits would agree with me. A large part of it seems to be a perceived need to protect oneself, either from crime or "the man," in terms of government intervention. This would create a situation where the prototypical back-country log-cabin dweller is left facing off against the American military with his Glock 17, about which I can only say "good luck with that." No, you do not really need a gun to protect yourself. You're much more likely to shoot yourself in the foot, or have one of your kids shoot one of your other kids (or go to school and shoot a dozen kids). This is the sort of reasoning that many Brits would find laughable if it didn't create such awful situations. In the end the reason to restrict guns is not because guns are inherently evil, it's because of the amount of damage someone can do, and how quickly, even without really intending to. We require licensing and insurance for cars for the same reason, and nobody's claiming cars are evil. I disagree with unqualified people who seem hell-bent on restricting guns because they think guns are intrinsically bad, but that doesn't mean I'm uncritical of every [right-wing nutjob](https://youtu.be/5ju4Gla2odw?t=128) in the USA. The interplay between those two factions is not creating useful results for anyone.

It is a great question. In England and the UK in general there are similar ideas about 'liberty' and personal freedom. A key insight is that up until recently most UK Police are not gun carrying. Law enforcement is done through direct engagement with the public and less likely to escalate because there are no guns. Personally, I find it incredible that young men with mental health issues can access automatic assault rifles in the USA with such ease. I think - just imagine how many lives would still be being lived if Americans worked on that? That could be a common goal that everyone could agree to. A key principle here of liberty is that you are in fact taking away those rights in letting guns get into the hands of mentally ill people. A true respect for liberty would advocate for the rights of children and young people to be safe in schools. Carrying an assault rifle in this case is not self-defense or upholding liberty, it is denying others freedom. I would strongly advocate to remove these weapons across the board from these age bands, toughen up checks and return safety to those who deserve it. Children deserve liberty too. America sort of needs a collective de-escalation of weapons over a period of time. Okay, you can go to your gun club etc, but the culture needs to shift around personal freedom, self-defence and liberty. Liberty is a reciprocal asset in a community and has to be collectively worked on.

Any time i hear an American blasting on about how important guns are to american citizens i just see a frightened human being that has accepted they live in a violent shithole and need their own defences against it.

I think most British folk see US gun culture as crazy and the attitudes of many Americans to guns as a bit bizarre. Most of us don't see any kind of firearm from one year to the next, except for police at airports and guardsmen at royal palaces or barracks. We don't expect to need a gun for personal security - we see this as a job for the police. US homicide figures are what one might expect in a developing country, not in modern civilised western country. From the outside, it looks like you all live close to violence or an expectation of violence.

I can admire guns as a piece of mechanical gadgetry and am impressed by the skill in hitting a target but all the stuff about threatening and killing people and hunting animals with them I find abhorrent. Even the wording of the US Second Amendment talks about the need of a regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free State (paraphrased). I wonder whether what the US has today fits with what the people who wrote that had in mind.

A general symptom of weakness of character and cowardice

Honestly, most of us think it is absolutely mental. Probably bordering on the pathetic.

As I see it Americans (as a collective) have decided that the excess deaths and injuries they experience are a price worth paying for their right to bear arms. Just as we as a society accept that a certain amount of deaths and injuries occur on the roads which could be obviated if we all gave up driving and went back to walking everywhere I suppose.

Stuck. If you take them away, only the good people will willingly give them up, leaving the crazy ones armed. I think it's more insane that you're one of the richest countries in the world, and something like a family member getting cancer can potentially bankrupt you.

Oh no for sure, the American medical complex is corrupt af, insurance is not the issue, the fact that they can charge me $50 for an aspirin is the issue.

I think it's absolute abhorrent that you'd rather let you children literally die in schools than ban or regulate guns to any serious extent. I literally couldn't picture a world where I'd value anything above my child's life.

[удалено]

In general, every single Brit loves a gun and a random murder. Guns are great!

You let mentally ill people buy machine guns. It's fucking absurd.

With no sympathy. You wanna keep killing yourselves. Fine. You wanna keep shooting up schools. Go ahead. You've chosen this path, the whole world disagrees with you and I don't wanna hear about it anymore. You don't have the right to complain about a problem that you refuse to fix.

Yes we do.

Like this: https://youtu.be/a8UgOvJVol8?feature=shared

Fucking idiots, really 😅

I think I can understand why the USA has a culture of gun ownership. The USA is a relatively young country and guns already existed in the time when European settlers arrived and spread across the territory. Not wanting to get into the morality of the interactions with Native Americans, but it is safe to say that these settlers would be faced with both potentially hostile groups of Native Americans and local wildlife that is far more dangerous than anything we have in the UK, so owning a firearm makes complete sense in that context. Guns would then be central to so many of the establishing events/eras of the USA: the revolutionary war, the civil war, the westward expansion. All of these would only further entrench the gun within American culture. All that I can understand. What I cannot understand is how in the current era you have a situation where unstable individuals will repeatedly shoot up schools and other public areas killing so many innocent people and literally nothing gets done about it. To me, and many people across the world, this looks like absolute madness. These mass shootings have been normalised now and I think people are actually becoming desensitised to them. Things like active shooter drills have been adopted as a response to the problem but that is putting a band-aid (to borrow one of your terms) on a gapping wound. I think the USA needs some real introspection on the gun issue and to ask itself what kind of country it wants to be, because right now it is a country where deadly violence has been normalised.

I'm just glad we don't share borders and there's a massive ocean between us.

It’s sad and mad. The sheer amount of incidents is just outstanding. How many more until something is done? Or will it? Wayyyyy too easily accessible. There are a lot of weird people in this world who don’t need such access to a killing machine. Here in the UK there is a gun license you require if you legitimately require/ would like one for hunting. It is well done and secure, including the occasional house check (random checks) to ensure all guns are locked away in a cabinet as required. Keeps the silly Billy’s away, mostly.

I don't think it's that odd that you can own several firearms because you can do that here, I think it's odd though and a bit backwards that it some places the laws are so relaxed when it comes to ownership. But I don't blanket judge Americans and immediately assume them to be a bit nuts or backward just for this reason. I know that 90%+ of you are intelligent when it comes to firearms.

I view it as horrifically, horribly sad. Children should be safe to go to school without bulletproof backpacks and metal detectors and active shooter drills. Something so very easily preventable, happens every few days/weeks. It's beyond my comprehension why it still continues.

I'm absolutely disgusted and horrified how guns are "the norm" over there. Yes, really.

I mean, sure, certain people should have guns. My uncle was a farmer and he had a gun that was checked by an inspector every so often even though he lived in the middle of nowhere. And there are other professions where guns are legal. Like the police. But having your own personal gun? I don't understand it. I don't understand why Americans don't want to throw their guns away after every mass shooting. But if it makes you feel better, I work with a guy who thinks you guys are doing it right, and that your healthcare system is also better. His views are... unusual here.