Sure, you only have to worry about vehicles, knives, and acid attacks. All occurring with no viable defense.
Per capita if you amalgamate all those attacks together, lets call them "armed violent attacks" and stand them up against "armed violent attacks" in the US, how do the figures compare?
So, do you think you are the only ones horrified?
No I think that most Americans are horrified whenever something like this happens. I think it's all the more sad that nothing is ever done about the issue.
Need I inform you that the US is not the UK, nor is it Europe. [...]
Guns have been an integral part of American culture since before we kicked your asses out some 200 + years ago. Attempting to get rid of them or even apply significant restriction might have a worse result than finding other plausible solutions.
If you want to get all historical then guns have been an integral part of American culture since the first colonists used them to massacre the parts of the indigenous population that European viruses hadn't killed yet. If America had been discovered before guns had been a thing the outcome might have been a lot different, but I digress.
There are other solutions, however, just like here each side doesn't listen to the other one, therefore nothing ever gets done. That in some respects might not be as bad as doing some of the "feel good" proposals advocated by gun grabbers. % 99 of the gun owning citizenry are not the problem, most firmly believe that giving up their firearm(s) supposedly for the greater good would have no effect. Therefore, most of that % 99 won't support anything related to the elimination, curtailment, or anything ultimately leading to the banning of any type of firearm...
I'm not advocating that the US enacts strict gun control regulations like we have in the UK. I'm advocating that the US has a proper debate about gun control.
That's the first step that needs to happen. It's a hugely emotional issue. The "won't somebody think of the children" crowd have this ONE issue that they have actual solid case for and might be able to make a difference on. On the other side there are the entrenched fanatical gun fanatics who have talked themselves into believing that they are fighting for freedom and for the constitution and for America! when if fact they are mostly just wanting to keep all of their toys.
Then we have the politicians. Like most things opinion is split on partisan lines and the "Good old rich white boys" party who have someone managed to get themselves elected despite a smaller and smaller fraction of the population being old, rich and white hold sway. Politics is engineered in the US such that even when a party holds power it can't get anything meaningful done. (see previous Obama administration) the politicians today have one overriding concern, how to get elected. That trumps all else. It leads to pandering to powerful lobby groups and gerrymandering and vote rigging and lots of things designed to maintain the status quo so that the good old rich white boys can stay rich. (see the US healthcare debacle for a prime example)
There's lots of actual honest to goodness politicians in the US that want to change things to serve the people, but they are drowned out by the ones that game the system for selfish reasons.
The prime tool in all of the political fights is the politics of fear.
That's what's being used mostly these days to keep power and maintain the status quo. "You need a gun for self defense" - no you don't. The odds of you ever being in a situation where having a gun could have made a difference to your wellbeing are
astronomically small. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" - er yes and no. Said good guy needs to be trained and needs to actually go and do it when the time comes, or he's not exactly a good guy. Are there actual incidents where a "good guy with a gun" has stopped such an event. There are incidents I can recall where they have had little to no effect. I'd guess that the numbers show this claim to be incorrect.
It's not the culture and history of the US that means that guns are so prevalent. It's the culture of fear that's being cultivated by politicians to keep power that's the main driver imo.
Gun control in the US is a thorny problem, but it's not an intractable one.
Lets actually get to some sensible control measures that should be talked about.
What weapons should civilians have access to? Hunting is a thing, so lets OK hunting rifles. Self defense is a thing (it shouldn't be, but hey) so lets OK handguns. Farms are a thing so lets OK shotguns.
Automatic weapons are already outlawed, lets look at semi-automatics. Does any responsible civilian owner need semi automatic weapons? They're nice and all but the usefulness of the tool isn't greatly impigned by having to cock the gun or slide a bolt or whatever in between shots. Maybe OK those for use at gun ranges or have some extra hoops that are harder to jump through so that enthusiasts can still use them but general civilians can't get hold of them so easily.
What calibres of weapons should we allow? What capacity magazines should be OK?
How high a bar should we set before a person can buy a gun? It should bar unfit people for sure, how long should "responsible" people have to wait? Should criminal convictions disbar you from being able to own a gun? If so how long for? etc etc
Instead of reasoned debate on how best to limit peoples access to weapons to curtail as much as possible mass shootings, while still allowing responsible people to own and shoot guns the whole argument devolves into this shouting match between the most fanatical advocates of opposite sides and nothing is ever done.
The US is the only western country this happens in regularly. There's a reason for that.
I hope this time around things are different. I hope that this doesn't just blow over and the lobbying power of the NRA dissolves and that actual sensible discussions happen about gun control this time. I'm not going to hold my breath though.
I lived on the outskirts of a village which I named. It's at least 5 miles from the village where I lived to the training area.
