Discussion
I don't own a gun. I have not touched a gun for decades. I have not once seen a gun in public in the city where I live, except for the pistols carried by law enforcement. Because in Denmark we don't have guns.
Our last school shooting was in 1994.
In the US 13,000 people will die from gun violence this year.
In Denmark only 10.
I call that being pro life.
@randahl I call it living free without fear. In the US they claim to be land of the free, in reality they are less free than many other countries, and live more in fear of each other.
@randahl
> Because in Denmark we don't have guns.
It is not a gun that kills, it is who aimed and fired it. It is not about general population owning millions of guns, it is about who is owning them.
In Poland any sane and law-abiding citizen has a right to own firearms. In fact – without special armory room – one can keep up to 50 firearms of any kind, if only the automatic fire is permanently disabled. You can carry as long as your weapon is concealed and fully unloaded.
The registering procedure matters. Psychiatric evaluation, membership in the (one of tens of thousands) gun-owner org, gun-laws and practical exams passed. If all boxes checked, citizen is issued with first batch (10) of buyer registration forms so they can go shopping.
In 2024 there were 39 homicides by gun (done and attempts) registered in Poland. Some of them by immigrants. No mass shootings.
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@randahl and don't forget, the US's "winning argument" for having lots of guns is so they can stand up to tyrannical government. That didn't turn out so well.
@randahl
Switzerland:
Most everyone has not a gun
But automatic rifle.
How many school shootings here?
Its not guns killing people,
Its people killing people.
I read somewhere years ago in a article/commentary that the entire German police force fired less bullets in an entire year during execution of their duties (meaning it excludes the training on range etc) than a single US police officer in a single shootout with one lone gunman. The number quoted was something like 38 bullets for the ENTIRE German police force. A country of over 80mil with a gun-culture stemming from hunting & sport.
The entire US is just bonkers.
@randahl
I guess it won't change even if US prohibited Gun. there will be knife, bomb, or other kind of crime in replacement.
the gun is kind of media, while the real reason is hatred and extreme polarisation their politicians and celebrities created.
@Pouakai with a gun, everyone can carry out a home invasion. With only a knife, entering someone else's home is much more risky. You could meet someone much stronger, you could be outnumbered, etc.
Well... after the Dunblane mass shooting, Prince Philip (Queen Lizzy's hubby) once said:
"If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?"
@ri I have never touched or seen a gun in the hands of a non-police person. Europe 🤟
@randahl What scares me, is that while we have guns in private hands for hunting and target shooting, we still experience way lower gun-related incidents than the USofA.
I have used guns, have been a gun safety instructor, and won't even disclose if I own guns. Still, you can handle guns safely. I lived few years (totally unrelated to guns) in the US, and encountered some pretty lunatic folks there. That society is way, way different from Europe, and it can be pretty scary.
@randahl You live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world (without the type of wealth disparity we have in the States).
Gun violence in the U.S. is a symptom of much greater problems. Our Canadian neighbors have plenty of guns but they don't have the gun violence problem we have.
@simplegentleman it is a myth that Canadians have "plenty of guns" but "without the gun violence". The USA is in a completely different league when you check the number of guns owned per 100 citizens:
Denmark: 10
Canada: 35
USA: 121 🔫
@randahl
Am interesting part to this statistic is how many guns are owned per person. Of the gun owners in Denmark and Canada, my money would be the gun owners there own one or two, but in the USA, a much higher median number would appear.
@randahl I am not "impressed" by that "small" number of dead people. Why? In South Africa we have on average of 70 murders EVERY DAY. It is a GOOD idea to have a FEW guns here.
@BissetWV interesting read: Murder has dropped 20 percent over the last two years in South Africa, as the country goes cashless.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/debate-about-sa-s-falling-murder-levels-masks-a-deeper-crisis
@randahl who told you that kak!!!? Dropped? The army is out in force in the Cape Ganglands, the murders got just too many to cover up. 70 a day is the official count, UP 20 from 2 years ago.
@randahl I've never fired a gun in my life, and I never will. Fetishising tools for killing is a vile sickness, especially the guns designed and optimised to kill people. I hate guns and I hate shithole USA which worships them.
And it shows that the US is a poor and underdeveloped country. I'm living in Germany 67 yrs old and never had to use or own a gun. We pay professionals to do it. We call them police, military, Forest ranger and body guard.
And the are a small number of gun athletes, using them in sports. Professionals like Olympic biathlets are from the above groups too and paid users too.
Amateurs are rare. People can afford to let professionals do the shooting.
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@randahl @cstross And yet in Sweden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Fagersta_school_attack and then there was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Tumbler_Ridge_shooting in Canada and I can find more all in places with much stricter gun laws than the U.S.
The sickness isn’t guns, the guns most often used in crime in the U.S. aren’t legal as it is. The sickness is deeper and far harder to cure.
2026 Tumbler Ridge shooting
2026 Fagersta school attack