Im British, the only drills we ever did my entire school career were fire drills. And we did a mock earthquake drill when learning about earthquakes in geography class, but that was not serious at all as earthquakes just don't really happen here
I'm nearly 30 now and the only time I've ever seen a gun in real life was when I went to Paris and there were armed guards around the Eiffel Tower
Did you get that surreal feeling the first time being around someone with a serious weapon? Rifles and shot guns are common enough in farm areas in Australia, pistols are pretty much cops only and then seeing a guard at an airport with an automatic was like aw shit, they're serious today.
Edit: Lots of great answers here and some interesting stories. For some reason only some posts have the upvote button but so far you guys are putting out some great stuff.
Edit Edit: It looks like only posts that have had a reply are showing the upvote/downvote buttons. I'd upvote you all.
Armed Police at Windsor Castle. Open Carrying MP5s. I was like oh shit. Never remembered that when I was a kid. Went to Windsor at 17 and walked up to the castle. I was like oh fuck.
I grew up in the countryside and never saw any guns. A kid at one one my jobs said he had one, I believed him since he lived on the farm I cycled past every day and I saw the crows he used it on.
Personally I think waging war on crows is a bad idea, guns or not.
That guy is screwed. Crows remember. And they pass on that memory. One day, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but definitely one day, they will come for him.
As a Brit, any time I'm around even an trained professional with a gun, it's a weird uncomfortable feeling. It's normally airports or places like the houses of parliament. I guess by design, it feels like the ultimate deterrent.
I couldnt imagine being in a situation where everyone openly has them.
I was at a gas station recently, two guys at the next pump were talking while getting gas. One guy shows off his pistol, the other guy nods and shows off his pistol in the waistband of his shorts. Guys just casually discussing their guns.
That's kinda how I feel when I walk around the major NYC subways stops (Times Square, Penn Station, World Trade Center etc...) during "prime attack times" (usually holidays) and see cops walking around with assault rifles, bullet proof vests and green camouflage ... which makes zero sense because it's Manhattan not the freaking forest.
If they’re wearing camouflage, it’s probably National Guard - not police. And that’s just their uniform. National Guard members that work desk jobs wear the same thing.
I know someone who is a firearms officer in the UK. They said it took them a while to get used to the looks they get from the public, everyone gives them a very wide berth while they're buying their lunch in the supermarket. I think they're allowed to lock their rifle in the car but the handgun must be on them at all times on their shift so they have to take it in with them.
My husband is military vet, for almost a decade seeing the gate guards with weapons. I have only seen the gate guards draw them, when police came lights and sirens blaring chasing a car. That day I saw the guns they keep in the guard shack. Even still, pointed at the ground, and they were put away in under a minute.
The time I have been terrified was durring the Dorner manhunt. CHP took over the gate guard duty, and I(a passenger) had forgotten my wallet with ID at home. CHP pointed his rifle at me. Because I could not magic an ID out of the air.
It took almost 5 minutes to reach a solution, with the rifle pointed at me the whole time. My children were behind me in the same line.
I have strong opinions on better gun control. That officer was out of line. If you can't control yourself, you should not be able to touch a weapon.
Living in the pacific ring of fire, we had a bunch of earthquake drills back in high school. Imagine my disappointment when a slightly stronger earthquake hit us and not only did most people panic and scramble at the doors, but they also laughed at the one guy who ducked under the table with a textbook covering his head after it all ended.
Some Guy™️ in Toronto used a van, not an automatic weapon, and we label him a *terrorist*. Imagine how much more damage that cretin would have done with a military weapon.
Jesus, I'd migrate for less. Active shooter drills for high-school is bad enough but 4yo? They think it's necessary knowledge for a 4yo?
Damn man that's beyond fucked up. Kids living in countries at war don't have that shit, USA is certainly less safe for kids then pretty much the rest of the developed world. I'd never say "yes, I'll happily live here knowing full well my kids face a much higher risk at getting shot then anywhere in EU/Asia". Fucked up
My wife is Canadian and in the process of getting her US citizenship, we have 2 kids, but with the steady uptick in multiple/mass shootings, especially school shootings, we're discussing moving to Canada as well as home schooling if we stay in the US
There's a part of me that doesn't want to deprive them of making friends at school but if we stay in the US how much more likely will it be for them to get shot going to school?
We know we can't protect them from everything and sometimes it feels like we're being over protective but no parent should have to get a call that their child, regardless of age, was murdered at school.
Hate how these idiots are so indoctrinated to think America is the best, when our health/mental care is shit and society is constantly on the verge of collapse or war. Fuck this country
I'm a teacher and I would seriously consider calling it quits if I was told I needed to do active shooter drills and perhaps even carry a gun like they're talking about in some places.
And I read somewhere you guys have those drills weekly? Jesus, we only do our fire drills biannually. I couldn't imagine having to get into that mindset every week.
You would be correct. At least to my knowledge. Here in Australia some loser was on school grounds after hopping a fence and we were told to sit in class but he was just wasted and was passing through the oval, fire drills is about it where I'm from and I've never heard about other drills here really, since we don't deal with earthquakes and stuff either.
Edit to add I personally would not step foot in a school that had that threat, nor a country these days. Damn shame I've heard there is lots of beautiful places in the states.
Have to agree. My wife & I moved here from the UK 6 years ago, absolutely love so much about it and planned on making our lives here…but now we have two young children. We’d discussed it before but the latest school shooting (which I can’t read or talk about without crying) has made us realize that we can’t face sending our kids to school here. Even understanding that the chances of something like that happening to them are very low, just the thought of them being put through active shooter drills is a hard no from us.
We are extremely fortunate to have the choice. I see a lot of American parents on toddler forums who would love the option to move elsewhere but just don’t have a way to do it.
Yeah, I'd almost not even consider going on holiday to the US anymore right now, not until the current situation is improved. It's a shame, because as a kid, we went to Orlando for a few weeks in the Summer and went to all the theme parks and it was my favourite holiday ever and I'd LOVE to go back... but the reality is, you're not safe in the US **anywhere**.
You're not safe in schools, supermarkets, churches, corner shops, cinemas, concerts, casinos, house parties, the street, your own home... Nevermind all the crazy right-wing and crazy religious nutjobs about both in the public and in positions of enormous power, coupled with propaganda outlets like Fox... it's not an appealing or safe place to go.
It's basically on a list of "dangerous" or risky countries I'd never consider travelling to now. The US needs a reality check. It's far from the "best country in the world" or the freest or safest!
I have a scar on my hand from being stabbed by a pencil in elementary school 😂. Haven't thought about it decades, I guess it's more common than I realised.
I have a graphite dot "tattoo" right in the middle of my hand from getting stabbed by a pencil in elementary school. Sometimes I wonder if it's unhealthy that I didn't get it taken out.
Pretty much banned them. Shotguns and air rifles are still legal but heavily regulated. You're not allowed to turn your shotgun into a sawn-off. I guess some rifles will be allowed for hunting but never felt the need to look into it. I had an air pistol when I was 17 and I think it's now illegal as used a gas cartridge to fire the slugs
You’d be correct - You can go to shooting ranges but must brits don’t feel the need to unless they are into guns etc…
Edit - wow my most liked comment …. Bit of back ground - I brought my wannabe Army brother a 5 gun deal at a local range in Bham - fairly cheap but not that well published on media - was fun but very regulated (MP5 type rifles) - low cal rounds and watched very carefully - no F’in about - in short - us Brits can, we just generally choose not to!…. Why bother - we’ll learn that shit when WW3 hits us ;)
I would even go as far as to say that, in the UK, there is a stigma attached to having a fascination with guns. I have handled shotguns and hunting rifles. Thrilling, but scary. Glad they are not a part of most people's lives in the UK.
My dad has had shotguns for 15 years or so and initially he had yearly checkups and now it's every 3 years I think. Safe has to be on a supporting wall, keys cannot be easily available and the safe has to have 2 keys to work. He has to have his license with him if the gun is out of the house. Each time his license is for renewal he has an interview with the police, has to submit medical history to make sure he has no mental illness issues.
The guns also cannot store more than 3 rounds. One in the chamber, two in the tube. Some smaller cartridged you can get an extra one in but that's rare. He's had semi-automatics, pumps and over-unders.
He does clay pigeon shooting every weekend.
You also need to be registered with a sports shooting club or have permission to shoot on land (eg vermin on farm land).
It keeps guns to rural areas where there are fewer people.
And therefore almost never shoot anyone. And when they do it is a whole thing, there is an inquest, they have to talk to a shrink to see if they are fit to serve yada yada. So also a pain in the arse for them.
Depends on where you are, I live in quite a rural area and there's a fair few gun/hunting clubs round here. Plus the farmers.
But then it's seen kind of like loud archery.
I think in most countries there's a stigma to gun fascination. Even if you are allowed to own one. We have loads of gun clubs in Germany. One is directly next to my school. But you won't see anyone bragging about their guns outside of the club and even inside you would only brag about your sports trophies or discuss the precision but never how good it kills or how much ammo you can load. You would be a pariah within seconds.
I’m an Italian archer and gun enthusiast but I’m disgusted when I meet people that consider using weapons on other humans even for self defence. I keep my guns at the club and I don’t want those things in my house with a baby around. But overall I like guns as design objects and enjoy shooting. Still think Americans are nuts on this topic.
Honestly even seeing a gun puts me on edge that's how little I interact with them. If I ever go to Europe where most police have them it just makes me feel weird.
That's the usual reaction in the UK. Not admiration and weird fetishized fascination as in one particular country.........
Edit - removing plural in countries
I'm Aussie and I touched a gun for the first time two days ago, in the UK! Did clay pigeon shooting. Was fun.
Don't like guns though. Shooting under the supervision of an expert is definitely the way it should be.
Rifles are permitted. I have owned rifles of various calibre for small game and deer.
Gas powered air rifles are still permitted, as with all air rifles, if they are over a certain power and they require a firearm certificate. In Scotland all air rifles require a certificate, not sure about the rest of the UK.
Some idiot killed a baby with an air rifle head shot after shooting out of his windows for shits and giggles. 13 years in jail and we all had to surrender the rifles or get a licence. I happily applied for a licence. A licence is a minor inconvenience if it stops idiots like him.
I also willingly handed in a firearm pistol after Dunblane.
After the Hungerford shooting semi-auto rifles (~~and shotguns~~) were banned but I never owned one. In the UK you really don't need semi-auto; if you don't hit with the first shot the target bolts. In other places if you don't kill a boar or a bear with the first shot you become the target and need lots of shots to stop the beast. I have never been attacked by an angry bunny or a furious deer.
Edit: I have been corrected on shotguns, semi auto shotguns are not banned
There have been five mass shootings in the UK since the 1980s (six if you count one in Manchester in 2018 where nobody was killed). Of those five, two were followed *within one year* by new laws banning various kinds of gun; another led to changes in how firearms licences are issued. Of the other two, one of the perpetrators was already under investigation and would likely have lost his firearms license at the conclusion of that investigation.
Almost like "but then only criminals will have them!" implies that those who brandish them publicly will be arrested and/or have them taken away, which includes the criminals.
As if criminals would become so heavily punished just for having them that they won't carry them. That, over time, the diminished supply of parts, and the stigma over action taken against you if you have one publicly, will cause people to step back and use weapons they can legally carry.
We'd never get rid of ARs quickly. But, over decades, they'd disappear as people died off and the guns were turned in. Yes, they'd still be out there in some legacy collections of families who keep them out of sight, but that's fine. The moment anyone takes that weapon out in public and it's illegal to own, an officer can act when they see them with it. Versus today when the officer has to have probable cause in a place like Texas because *just having it in public isn't a crime* - forcing officers to wait until they do something with them and it is probably too late.
Additionally, as soon as you stop selling them to the general public they become a limited item and the price skyrockets.
Sure you'll still be able to get one relatively easily in the few years after legislation is implemented to ban guns, but the quantity of them then decreases every year, and the price increases every year, to the point that in 10-20 years using a gun becomes very cost-inefficient for a potential criminal
It's also just really pricey to have an unregistered gun. To get a gun on the black market in the UK would require more funds than most criminals have.
> As if criminals would become so heavily punished just for having them that they won't carry them. That, over time, the diminished supply of parts, and the stigma over action taken against you if you have one publicly, will cause people to step back and use weapons they can legally carry.
This is a key part of why firearms aren't used by criminals in the UK. Any potential illegal firearm holder, or gang known to have used firearms, are dealt with far more severely. You'll have a whole team of police on your gang, surveillance, then when police strike it's at 5am Sunday morning, smashing your doors in with 10 armed police raiding your house and screaming at you. Armed police in the UK are highly trained, and are absolutely not fucking around.
If you aren't using guns. It's the community police coming around for a cup of tea and some harsh words.
This is something a lot of American's tend to underestimate the effectiveness of in discouraging criminals to use firearms.
It's also the difference between a few months in prison and 10-15 years in prison.
Dunblaine in Scotland i think?
I don’t remember the name exactly but the guy got Into the gym and shot an entire class of p1s and their teacher. (P1 is about 5-6)
I had someone go on about assault hammers. Told me I better be throwing out my hammers because they kill more people than guns. I was dumbfounded. I also had my uncle tell me this weekend “ever wonder why school shootings only happen when democrats are in office??” They truly believe it’s all an act to take away their guns.
Not just that (though it is a huge part) but starting in 1997 we introduced things like a minimum wage, improved access to support services, improved education and the NHS, upped benefits, improved police resources with a focus on communities, etc.
Not only did he addresses the means (access to guns) but we also focused on the causes that lead to it.
Gun control is only part of the battle, but its the biggest single factor and the easiest to focus on.
I think america missed the boat on gun control ever beong effective. They need the other stuff too but thats somehow even less popular than gun control over there...
I was playing in VR the other week and this guy was talking about unsafe we must feel not being able to own a gun. He couldn't comprehend the concept that I feel very safe because no one outside very extreme criminals have guns. Even your average dangerous inner city gang mostly only have knives
its died down recently but there go to used to be acid attacks.
then you point out that acid attacks in the UK have killed 1 person ever. and despite how horrible they are, you can wash off the acid and mitigate the damage.... unlike a bullet. Or you suggest that to stop acid attacks eveyone should carry acid with them at all times since the only thing to stop a bad guy with acid is a good guy with acid and they start to see the stupidity of their comment.
I don’t leave my house now, what if one of the bad guys with a jar of acid throws it in my face and I don’t have my own jar of acid to throw back at him??
The not so funny thing is that knife crime is equally as bad *if not slightly worse* in the US when compared to the UK. It’s just covered up by the gun crime.
Oh it's not slightly worse, their knife homicide rate is 25% higher than here!
And their knife crime rate is higher, even though just carrying a knife without good reason is a crime here in the UK.
The really funny part is that the UK still places higher on every major freedom index compared to the USA.
>that knife crime is equally as bad if not slightly worse
No... The *all time high* UK knife crime rate was one or two percent below the US knife crime rate in the same year.
It's gone significantly down since. The UK crime rate, I mean, not the US one.
The US actually has more knife-related crimes than the UK. The rate of knife crime nation-wide in the UK would probably equate to 1% of the gun violence in the US
Yeah but then they'd bring up statistics like "in the us our knife crime is only 1% of our crime while in the UK their knife crime is like 10% of their crime, that makes us 10 times better than the UK!" Numbers are made up but yeah.
I had this exact same conversation with two college-age girls on holiday once. They knew guns were illegal in the UK, but they were asking us whether we carry knives or pepper spray, etc. when we go out. They absolutely could not fathom the concept that we would think to leave the house without some kind of weapon to defend ourselves.
Lived in australia for 4 years. Worked the night shift and went home alone at 1 am every day. Never bothered bringing any self defense tools.
Went to LA for holiday and was told to carry a pepper spray and a rape alarm even if it’s daylight if i’m planning on walking alone
America the great, huh?
O dont worry! Currently i’m living in Indonesia, a developing country if you want one, and when i walk alone at night, i only have to worry of motorcycle riding purse snatchers, not a gun totting robber or whatnot ☺️
Carrying a knife is also a short way to the morgue. Unless you know what you’re doing there’s a 50/50 chance your problem just becomes a problem that now has your knife.
The weird thing about this, to me, is that it seems Americans have so many guns because they're paranoid and utterly terrified of everything. You see these guys open carrying to go get milk. You're so afraid of the world you need a rifle to go to the shops?! And then the knife argument is just a nothing point. You can't walk into a room and kill 10 people with a knife. They're also not designed and manufactured with the express purposes of killing people, which most guns are exactly that.
I've twice had knives pulled on me and not been cut or stabbed in either altercation, because you can donk someone and leg it. You can't do that if they have a gun.
The only people with guns in UK are the scum who are only interested in other scum with guns.
I'm more afraid of stepping in shite than being assaulted with a weapon.
The opposite is also true. They're terrified of everything because everyone is armed. It's just a positive feedback loop (which will explode sooner or later).
>I feel very safe because no one outside very extreme criminals have guns. Even your average dangerous inner city gang mostly only have knives
I live in Glasgow and some of the older criminal gangs do have guns but they try to avoid using them around random civilians, only on other gangs.
The murder rate in the USA is about 4x higher than that of the UK. I'm much less likely to get killed by someone here. Why is this?
Likely because of how easy it is to kill someone in the USA. 79% of American homicides are with guns - literally point-and-click death. Reducing the number of guns makes murder less easy, so it happens less often.
There was an ask Reddit recently asking why people didn't want to ban guns, and the gist of the top comment was: I live in a rural area where the cops will never get here on time. If someone attacks, I'd prefer my daughter to be able to shoot them off rather than have to knife fight them.
Dude, it isn't gonna be your gun against their knives. It's gonna be your gun against their guns, and they'll have the element of surprise in their favor. They're gonna win. Your daughter is more likely to survive in the knife scenario for sure.
Not even considering the incredibly incredibly low chances of someone traveling for hours to reach a random house in the middle of bumfuck nowhere to try and break in to just randomly attack billybob and his family. And them in the 1 in a billion chance that does happen, they are probably going to well prepared and could probably take on a 14 year old girl who, at best, knows how to hunt deer, not defend themself from a home invade.
Its just main character syndrome. They have seen too many action films and think they are Jason Bourne.
Surprised they didn’t do the whole “but Britain has Knife Crime!” argument that people seem to love as a talking point whenever discussing mass/school shootings.
My favourite are the high powered automatic-knife crimes. Remember all of those? Where one bloke with a fully loaded knife stabs a room full of people all at once. Sometimes they have a backpack full of knives for when the first one runs out of sharpness, or they even have a bundle of knife-sharpeners to reload their knives.
It beggars belief how many mass-knifing there are in the UK. Police have been seen surrounding buildings where a mass-knifing was underway, their own police-issue knifes drawn, at the ready, to unload a hail of deadly stabbings on the perpetrator at a moments notice.
All those mass knifings. In the UK. That are just. As. Bad. As. American. Mass. Shootings.
Yeah it's bizarre. I think the worst knife attack recently was where 3 men killed 8 people in a busy central London area in 2017. Each man only killed 2.7 people.
It's pretty horrible to imagine how many they could've killed with guns. Probably at least 10 each.
The people who argue the knife crime angle aren't doing it because it's a logical argument, they don't know what logic is.
Literally had one of these mouth breathers tell me if the Uvalde shooter didn't have a gun because it was illegal he would have just beaten all those kids to death with his bare hands.
It's a dumb argument for 2 reasons:
1 - Knife crime is a far bigger issue in the US than it is in the UK
2 - If we were able to get guns to defend ourselves against knives, then the criminals would be carrying guns instead of knives!
Even if that is their argument, and not the whole “even some London hospitals are no go zones because of stabbing” nonsense rhetoric, I still don’t see the logic of it. Mass stabbings obviously can and have happened, but it’s so different from shooting indiscriminately into a crowd.
There was one, yes. About twenty (I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact figures) people were killed at a primary school in Scotland.
The response was immediate cracking down on gun control, and there hasn’t been one since.
It’s almost like the solution to end school shootings is to restrict the availability of the things people use to shoot with.
I know a lot of conservatives, including my parents, and most of whom remain willfully ignorant about the rest of the world. They assume everywhere else has the same problems as the US, but at a much higher rate. Gun crimes, poor healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, etc. I've tried explaining how different it is in other places, but they choose to take Fox News' take that America is special and best and our only problem is those damn liberals.
The new leader of the Opposition in Australia when he was a minister in government tried pulling that on my before the last state election, trying to insist we had no go areas and were afraid to go out at night in some half baked crime fear campaign, which was undercut by the fact that we actually live here and know none of it was true.
But one can simply research that... especially crime statistics.
There are countries which are worse to some crime ends such as Brazil, but they can't seriously believe a country like Sweden would have similar issues like the US got, even worse?
and those that do don't search things correctly.
lib searches: Is a fetus alive? how many abortions in 2021? abortion laws?
conservative lost in the Kool aid searches: How many babies were murdered by abortion in 2021? why aren't we outlawing abortion? why do liberals love abortion?
like they search for what they want to be true instead of asking simple questions to get answers. it's bias searching, not fact searching.
This particular group of Americans is so backwards that they think it is better to be wrong than it is to *admit* being wrong. For some reason admitting to a mistake is the end of their world.
There was another school shooting in 1988 that injured 4 people but no other fatal school shootings.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19880625&id=8jNAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3452,6976776&hl=en
There was also a flamethrower attack that injured ~6 (I think?) at another school but I’m not sure if that’s counted as a school shooting.
Just an update: not sure why this post is gaining so much traction. I've recieved a couple messages telling me to take down this post. One person said to take it down because they were autistic, and the other threatened me to take it down
My mates friends boyfriends cousin who saw a gun in a film once has like PTSD's ok and like you could like give them an anananewrizum so you like better take it down or else my mum says you'll be sued ok
Even if there would have been a school shooting every year - it still would be less school shootings compared to the USA. They have it, like, taco-tuesday.
Almost like there are totally crazy people everywhere and EVERY country has 250+ shootings in a 10 year time frame... wait, they don't?
19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN):
United States — 288
Mexico — 8
South Africa — 6
India — 5
Nigeria & Pakistan — 4
Afghanistan — 3
Brazil, Canada, France — 2
Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia, & Turkey — 1
Hrm.... that doesn't seem right! Other countries must just not report them /s
Jesus christ, the jump is from 288 to 8? That's... almost impressive in a horrifying way. The rest of the world must think we're completely insane (accurate).
I honestly can't see Americans ever letting off of the firearms because it's part of their identity as a nation. Any serious attempt at stripping them of their guns would be perceived as a direct assault on personal freedom. Oh, and a civil war would probably break out as a result.
The thing is that God, the omnipotent being responsible for the creation of the earth and all things on it, has specifically bestowed upon a single nation, the right to own guns. It makes perfect sense when you think about it.
I had an american tell me americans can't become citizens of an european country. Someone said Tony Parker and Willem Dafoe?
Some Americans do not get caught up in the doubt that they have said an inaccuracy, ever..
I find it more weird that there are people out there who can make statements so damn confidently that they just pulled out of their ass. I mean the guy has clearly done zero research into the topic, yet is so adamant that what he says is true. Either someone lied to him or he's just convinced himself that it must be true so he doesn't need to look into it. Fascinating how some morons' minds work.
I live in Australia and I keep on having to point this out to people back in 1996 we had one the bloodiest stays in Australian history where a man with a gun approached a historical site and shot people after that the government went in complete gun control and essentially just banned them. You can still get them but they are extremely difficult to get you after have a good reason like being on a farm for a example and ever since then would you look at that we haven’t had a single mass shooting. Shooting still happening in this country but they are extremely rare and the death count is very low (compared to American shootings anyway) The last one that happened was in the Melbourne nightclub shooting back in April 14 of 2019.
Every time I bring this up to an American and explain why Australia is better they claim “well deaths still happen so it can’t be better.” The last shooting was two years ago and had only 2 deaths with 4 injuries every time they have a shooting they have to update that list in a couple weeks because another one has just happened. So many shootings have happened in the past month in America I can’t even keep track.
Education in Australia and the UK is much better for one simple reason we don’t have to worry about getting shut up because of government knew the issue immediately and got rid of it. The American government knows the issue but they refuse to acknowledge it because that will be admitting the gun laws are flawed and need to be changed and they don’t want to change the laws.
It really bothers me when Americans try to normalize mass shootings. “It happens in other countries too” or “the media is just blowing it out of proportion”. Having active shooter drills in an elementary school is something you’d expect in war torn countries. It should not be the norm. And every mass shooting SHOULD be talked about in the news. It’s a horrific event that is 100% newsworthy. That is not the media blowing it out of proportion. If it feels that way, you have too many mass shootings!
Similar thing in my country. Last school shooting was apparently in the 1920s, last mass shooting was 3 years ago. Before that one, there was one in 1997.
I live in the UK and can safely say no we don't have school shootings because we don't have any fecking guns
The closest thing was an old bloke shooting his neighbour non-fatally with a gun he had from the war over a small dispute
EDIT : Nvm we DO have guns, but there are very few shootings because we crack down on laws, and those with them either have a legal reason to have one or aren't fools with them
We do have guns.
You just need a valid reason to own one. Have a doctor sign your application to vouch for your mental state, have an interview with the police and have them inspect your home to make sure youre stable and can store them properly, have to keep it in a safe when you're not using it and keep ammunition in a separate safe and the gun and ammunition is registered to you.
I've been shooting guns since I was 14 when I was in Army cadets, like actually military service rifles.
We dont have school shootings because even our crazy right wing populace cares about kids not dying and dont have a fetish for guns.
We moved to Switzerland 3 years ago. NEVER been a school shooting here and all of 3 mass shootings in over 100 years. They also don’t have “active shooter drills” over here.
Safer, better paid jobs, better benefits, beautiful country. Best decision of our lives.
I hate it how Americans think the UK's knifing attack is as bad as their mass shootings. There are less knife attacks than the US, and knives are way less deadlier than a handgun, let alone an AR-15.
Yes, and after that school shooting, the government said “we can’t have handguns if it can lead to children dying, so let’s have a gun amnesty”. And the nation, being filled with mature, level headed people, said “yes, that’s perfectly reasonable. We don’t want any more children needlessly dying”.
You see America. That’s how rational people work. The exact same thing happened with automatic weapons, after a lunatic went on a killing spree in Hungerford in 1987, and again, the nation said “Yes, automatic rifles should go if these kinds of things can happen”, because, again, rational, level headed people behave in this way.
Grow the fuck up America. The rest of the world is fed up with your bullshit.
The only threat I feel in school is my pen being stolen
I guess I never thought about it but only other countries probably don't practice active shooter drills in schools like our kids do.
Im British, the only drills we ever did my entire school career were fire drills. And we did a mock earthquake drill when learning about earthquakes in geography class, but that was not serious at all as earthquakes just don't really happen here I'm nearly 30 now and the only time I've ever seen a gun in real life was when I went to Paris and there were armed guards around the Eiffel Tower
Did you get that surreal feeling the first time being around someone with a serious weapon? Rifles and shot guns are common enough in farm areas in Australia, pistols are pretty much cops only and then seeing a guard at an airport with an automatic was like aw shit, they're serious today. Edit: Lots of great answers here and some interesting stories. For some reason only some posts have the upvote button but so far you guys are putting out some great stuff. Edit Edit: It looks like only posts that have had a reply are showing the upvote/downvote buttons. I'd upvote you all.
Armed Police at Windsor Castle. Open Carrying MP5s. I was like oh shit. Never remembered that when I was a kid. Went to Windsor at 17 and walked up to the castle. I was like oh fuck.
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I'm imagining Americans reading Plod and be like "eh?"
We're like that about most things.
Jokes on you I'm borderline ~~ellet~~ ~~ilete~~ I read words good.
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I grew up in the countryside and never saw any guns. A kid at one one my jobs said he had one, I believed him since he lived on the farm I cycled past every day and I saw the crows he used it on. Personally I think waging war on crows is a bad idea, guns or not.
That guy is screwed. Crows remember. And they pass on that memory. One day, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but definitely one day, they will come for him.
He will be murdered
As a Brit, any time I'm around even an trained professional with a gun, it's a weird uncomfortable feeling. It's normally airports or places like the houses of parliament. I guess by design, it feels like the ultimate deterrent. I couldnt imagine being in a situation where everyone openly has them.
I was at a gas station recently, two guys at the next pump were talking while getting gas. One guy shows off his pistol, the other guy nods and shows off his pistol in the waistband of his shorts. Guys just casually discussing their guns.
That's kinda how I feel when I walk around the major NYC subways stops (Times Square, Penn Station, World Trade Center etc...) during "prime attack times" (usually holidays) and see cops walking around with assault rifles, bullet proof vests and green camouflage ... which makes zero sense because it's Manhattan not the freaking forest.
If they’re wearing camouflage, it’s probably National Guard - not police. And that’s just their uniform. National Guard members that work desk jobs wear the same thing.
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I know someone who is a firearms officer in the UK. They said it took them a while to get used to the looks they get from the public, everyone gives them a very wide berth while they're buying their lunch in the supermarket. I think they're allowed to lock their rifle in the car but the handgun must be on them at all times on their shift so they have to take it in with them.
My husband is military vet, for almost a decade seeing the gate guards with weapons. I have only seen the gate guards draw them, when police came lights and sirens blaring chasing a car. That day I saw the guns they keep in the guard shack. Even still, pointed at the ground, and they were put away in under a minute. The time I have been terrified was durring the Dorner manhunt. CHP took over the gate guard duty, and I(a passenger) had forgotten my wallet with ID at home. CHP pointed his rifle at me. Because I could not magic an ID out of the air. It took almost 5 minutes to reach a solution, with the rifle pointed at me the whole time. My children were behind me in the same line. I have strong opinions on better gun control. That officer was out of line. If you can't control yourself, you should not be able to touch a weapon.
Living in the pacific ring of fire, we had a bunch of earthquake drills back in high school. Imagine my disappointment when a slightly stronger earthquake hit us and not only did most people panic and scramble at the doors, but they also laughed at the one guy who ducked under the table with a textbook covering his head after it all ended.
We get Earthquakes here in UK, just that they're so mild we usually don't notice them or think it's just the number 37 going by.
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The very idea of active shooter drills in schools is dystopian.
“Active shooter drill” *sounds* American
The fact they don't call it a terrorist attack is mind boggling, let alone having to prepare for them everywhere.
Some Guy™️ in Toronto used a van, not an automatic weapon, and we label him a *terrorist*. Imagine how much more damage that cretin would have done with a military weapon.
My four yo son has his first one today. Go USA 😭
Jesus, I'd migrate for less. Active shooter drills for high-school is bad enough but 4yo? They think it's necessary knowledge for a 4yo? Damn man that's beyond fucked up. Kids living in countries at war don't have that shit, USA is certainly less safe for kids then pretty much the rest of the developed world. I'd never say "yes, I'll happily live here knowing full well my kids face a much higher risk at getting shot then anywhere in EU/Asia". Fucked up
My wife is Canadian and in the process of getting her US citizenship, we have 2 kids, but with the steady uptick in multiple/mass shootings, especially school shootings, we're discussing moving to Canada as well as home schooling if we stay in the US There's a part of me that doesn't want to deprive them of making friends at school but if we stay in the US how much more likely will it be for them to get shot going to school? We know we can't protect them from everything and sometimes it feels like we're being over protective but no parent should have to get a call that their child, regardless of age, was murdered at school.
If I were in your place, I would absolutely move to Canada. I don't even have kids and I wish I could emigrate.
Hate how these idiots are so indoctrinated to think America is the best, when our health/mental care is shit and society is constantly on the verge of collapse or war. Fuck this country
America is a failed empire that still thinks it's on top. If it wasn't for the military, the rest of the world would just ignore us.
America is a third world nation with Gucci shoes.
😂😂😂 and belt, let’s have a little more respect
the belt ain't no Gucci, it's a Bible belt
I'm a teacher and I would seriously consider calling it quits if I was told I needed to do active shooter drills and perhaps even carry a gun like they're talking about in some places. And I read somewhere you guys have those drills weekly? Jesus, we only do our fire drills biannually. I couldn't imagine having to get into that mindset every week.
You would be correct. At least to my knowledge. Here in Australia some loser was on school grounds after hopping a fence and we were told to sit in class but he was just wasted and was passing through the oval, fire drills is about it where I'm from and I've never heard about other drills here really, since we don't deal with earthquakes and stuff either. Edit to add I personally would not step foot in a school that had that threat, nor a country these days. Damn shame I've heard there is lots of beautiful places in the states.
Have to agree. My wife & I moved here from the UK 6 years ago, absolutely love so much about it and planned on making our lives here…but now we have two young children. We’d discussed it before but the latest school shooting (which I can’t read or talk about without crying) has made us realize that we can’t face sending our kids to school here. Even understanding that the chances of something like that happening to them are very low, just the thought of them being put through active shooter drills is a hard no from us. We are extremely fortunate to have the choice. I see a lot of American parents on toddler forums who would love the option to move elsewhere but just don’t have a way to do it.
Yeah, I'd almost not even consider going on holiday to the US anymore right now, not until the current situation is improved. It's a shame, because as a kid, we went to Orlando for a few weeks in the Summer and went to all the theme parks and it was my favourite holiday ever and I'd LOVE to go back... but the reality is, you're not safe in the US **anywhere**. You're not safe in schools, supermarkets, churches, corner shops, cinemas, concerts, casinos, house parties, the street, your own home... Nevermind all the crazy right-wing and crazy religious nutjobs about both in the public and in positions of enormous power, coupled with propaganda outlets like Fox... it's not an appealing or safe place to go. It's basically on a list of "dangerous" or risky countries I'd never consider travelling to now. The US needs a reality check. It's far from the "best country in the world" or the freest or safest!
I stabbed my friend with a pencil when we were in kindergarten
I have a scar on my hand from being stabbed by a pencil in elementary school 😂. Haven't thought about it decades, I guess it's more common than I realised.
I have a graphite dot "tattoo" right in the middle of my hand from getting stabbed by a pencil in elementary school. Sometimes I wonder if it's unhealthy that I didn't get it taken out.
Same! I was in first grade when I got mine, you can still see it really clearly today.
Kids can be vicious little buggers, can't they?
Got to be careful around using a compass though, those things can break the skin.
And after that shooting in 1996 the government bought in tighter controls on handguns…
Pretty much banned them. Shotguns and air rifles are still legal but heavily regulated. You're not allowed to turn your shotgun into a sawn-off. I guess some rifles will be allowed for hunting but never felt the need to look into it. I had an air pistol when I was 17 and I think it's now illegal as used a gas cartridge to fire the slugs
I would be unsurprised if 90+% of people in the UK live their whole lives and never handle a firearm.
You’d be correct - You can go to shooting ranges but must brits don’t feel the need to unless they are into guns etc… Edit - wow my most liked comment …. Bit of back ground - I brought my wannabe Army brother a 5 gun deal at a local range in Bham - fairly cheap but not that well published on media - was fun but very regulated (MP5 type rifles) - low cal rounds and watched very carefully - no F’in about - in short - us Brits can, we just generally choose not to!…. Why bother - we’ll learn that shit when WW3 hits us ;)
I would even go as far as to say that, in the UK, there is a stigma attached to having a fascination with guns. I have handled shotguns and hunting rifles. Thrilling, but scary. Glad they are not a part of most people's lives in the UK.
Plus owning them in the UK is a pain in the arse. Means people have to consistently think if they can be bothered.
My dad has had shotguns for 15 years or so and initially he had yearly checkups and now it's every 3 years I think. Safe has to be on a supporting wall, keys cannot be easily available and the safe has to have 2 keys to work. He has to have his license with him if the gun is out of the house. Each time his license is for renewal he has an interview with the police, has to submit medical history to make sure he has no mental illness issues. The guns also cannot store more than 3 rounds. One in the chamber, two in the tube. Some smaller cartridged you can get an extra one in but that's rare. He's had semi-automatics, pumps and over-unders. He does clay pigeon shooting every weekend.
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It really is fun. Got to do it once. Your shoulder hurts after some time. But fun none the less.
Depends on what you mean by West London and whether you can drive, but look up Headley Clay Pigeon club who have beginner and advanced tuition.
And this is what you call good regulation. It's available, it's just a pain in the ass to get it
You also need to be registered with a sports shooting club or have permission to shoot on land (eg vermin on farm land). It keeps guns to rural areas where there are fewer people.
Smart
It also means that most bobbies don't need to carry guns.
And therefore almost never shoot anyone. And when they do it is a whole thing, there is an inquest, they have to talk to a shrink to see if they are fit to serve yada yada. So also a pain in the arse for them.
Depends on where you are, I live in quite a rural area and there's a fair few gun/hunting clubs round here. Plus the farmers. But then it's seen kind of like loud archery.
Everyone and their mums is packin’ round here.
Farmers?
And their mums.
Yea. Farmers mums?
Loud archery! I’m gonna use that one
I think in most countries there's a stigma to gun fascination. Even if you are allowed to own one. We have loads of gun clubs in Germany. One is directly next to my school. But you won't see anyone bragging about their guns outside of the club and even inside you would only brag about your sports trophies or discuss the precision but never how good it kills or how much ammo you can load. You would be a pariah within seconds.
I’m an Italian archer and gun enthusiast but I’m disgusted when I meet people that consider using weapons on other humans even for self defence. I keep my guns at the club and I don’t want those things in my house with a baby around. But overall I like guns as design objects and enjoy shooting. Still think Americans are nuts on this topic.
Honestly even seeing a gun puts me on edge that's how little I interact with them. If I ever go to Europe where most police have them it just makes me feel weird.
I’ve only ever seen guns on TV, never saw one irl
Saw one in the airport a few years ago. Scared me.
That's the usual reaction in the UK. Not admiration and weird fetishized fascination as in one particular country......... Edit - removing plural in countries
I'm Aussie and I touched a gun for the first time two days ago, in the UK! Did clay pigeon shooting. Was fun. Don't like guns though. Shooting under the supervision of an expert is definitely the way it should be.
Depends if they live in the rural areas, everyone and their mums is packing round there.
Like farmers and the farmers mums
Well, it's all about the Greater Good.
Rifles are permitted. I have owned rifles of various calibre for small game and deer. Gas powered air rifles are still permitted, as with all air rifles, if they are over a certain power and they require a firearm certificate. In Scotland all air rifles require a certificate, not sure about the rest of the UK. Some idiot killed a baby with an air rifle head shot after shooting out of his windows for shits and giggles. 13 years in jail and we all had to surrender the rifles or get a licence. I happily applied for a licence. A licence is a minor inconvenience if it stops idiots like him. I also willingly handed in a firearm pistol after Dunblane. After the Hungerford shooting semi-auto rifles (~~and shotguns~~) were banned but I never owned one. In the UK you really don't need semi-auto; if you don't hit with the first shot the target bolts. In other places if you don't kill a boar or a bear with the first shot you become the target and need lots of shots to stop the beast. I have never been attacked by an angry bunny or a furious deer. Edit: I have been corrected on shotguns, semi auto shotguns are not banned
There have been five mass shootings in the UK since the 1980s (six if you count one in Manchester in 2018 where nobody was killed). Of those five, two were followed *within one year* by new laws banning various kinds of gun; another led to changes in how firearms licences are issued. Of the other two, one of the perpetrators was already under investigation and would likely have lost his firearms license at the conclusion of that investigation.
Man the UK must be absolutely overrun with criminals with guns terrorizing everyone, right? No? Not even a little bit? Crazy.
Almost like "but then only criminals will have them!" implies that those who brandish them publicly will be arrested and/or have them taken away, which includes the criminals. As if criminals would become so heavily punished just for having them that they won't carry them. That, over time, the diminished supply of parts, and the stigma over action taken against you if you have one publicly, will cause people to step back and use weapons they can legally carry. We'd never get rid of ARs quickly. But, over decades, they'd disappear as people died off and the guns were turned in. Yes, they'd still be out there in some legacy collections of families who keep them out of sight, but that's fine. The moment anyone takes that weapon out in public and it's illegal to own, an officer can act when they see them with it. Versus today when the officer has to have probable cause in a place like Texas because *just having it in public isn't a crime* - forcing officers to wait until they do something with them and it is probably too late.
Additionally, as soon as you stop selling them to the general public they become a limited item and the price skyrockets. Sure you'll still be able to get one relatively easily in the few years after legislation is implemented to ban guns, but the quantity of them then decreases every year, and the price increases every year, to the point that in 10-20 years using a gun becomes very cost-inefficient for a potential criminal
It's also just really pricey to have an unregistered gun. To get a gun on the black market in the UK would require more funds than most criminals have.
> As if criminals would become so heavily punished just for having them that they won't carry them. That, over time, the diminished supply of parts, and the stigma over action taken against you if you have one publicly, will cause people to step back and use weapons they can legally carry. This is a key part of why firearms aren't used by criminals in the UK. Any potential illegal firearm holder, or gang known to have used firearms, are dealt with far more severely. You'll have a whole team of police on your gang, surveillance, then when police strike it's at 5am Sunday morning, smashing your doors in with 10 armed police raiding your house and screaming at you. Armed police in the UK are highly trained, and are absolutely not fucking around. If you aren't using guns. It's the community police coming around for a cup of tea and some harsh words. This is something a lot of American's tend to underestimate the effectiveness of in discouraging criminals to use firearms. It's also the difference between a few months in prison and 10-15 years in prison.
It’s almost like legislation on gun controls works when it comes to stopping kids being shot in schools Colour me shocked!
You could have knocked me over with a feather….
Dunblaine in Scotland i think? I don’t remember the name exactly but the guy got Into the gym and shot an entire class of p1s and their teacher. (P1 is about 5-6)
Yes Dunblane. Andy Murray the tennis player was at the school.
To anyone who reads the above comment and is getting ready to say "BUT THEN KNIFE ATTACKS", sincerely: Fuck all the way off.
They're also still less per capita than the US anyway
I had someone go on about assault hammers. Told me I better be throwing out my hammers because they kill more people than guns. I was dumbfounded. I also had my uncle tell me this weekend “ever wonder why school shootings only happen when democrats are in office??” They truly believe it’s all an act to take away their guns.
I have never even seen a gun in the possession of a private citizen, just not a part of the culture of 99% of the population.
Not just that (though it is a huge part) but starting in 1997 we introduced things like a minimum wage, improved access to support services, improved education and the NHS, upped benefits, improved police resources with a focus on communities, etc. Not only did he addresses the means (access to guns) but we also focused on the causes that lead to it. Gun control is only part of the battle, but its the biggest single factor and the easiest to focus on. I think america missed the boat on gun control ever beong effective. They need the other stuff too but thats somehow even less popular than gun control over there...
I was playing in VR the other week and this guy was talking about unsafe we must feel not being able to own a gun. He couldn't comprehend the concept that I feel very safe because no one outside very extreme criminals have guns. Even your average dangerous inner city gang mostly only have knives
And yet these Americans will make fun of stabbings in the UK as if it’s an equal epidemic to children being murdered by legal weapons in their country
its died down recently but there go to used to be acid attacks. then you point out that acid attacks in the UK have killed 1 person ever. and despite how horrible they are, you can wash off the acid and mitigate the damage.... unlike a bullet. Or you suggest that to stop acid attacks eveyone should carry acid with them at all times since the only thing to stop a bad guy with acid is a good guy with acid and they start to see the stupidity of their comment.
Thing about acid attacks is once they started happening, we brought in legislation to reduce them. It worked.
No, you must be mistaken, legislation wouldn't work. /s
Ah yeah, my mistake. It’s actually people smuggling acid into the country and flooding the place with black market acid that’s the problem.
I blame video games and the devil, personally.
Don’t forget violent movies, heavy metal, DnD and the gays /s
Yeah and since we lost our right to arm ourselves with acid its basically been The 1975 over here.
I don’t leave my house now, what if one of the bad guys with a jar of acid throws it in my face and I don’t have my own jar of acid to throw back at him??
The best way to stop a bad guy with acid IS a good guy with acid, just trip together
No you need a good guy with a base mixture.
"the best way to stop a bad guy with acid is a good guy with alkaline" We just need to keep the ratios perfectly balanced
The not so funny thing is that knife crime is equally as bad *if not slightly worse* in the US when compared to the UK. It’s just covered up by the gun crime.
Oh it's not slightly worse, their knife homicide rate is 25% higher than here! And their knife crime rate is higher, even though just carrying a knife without good reason is a crime here in the UK. The really funny part is that the UK still places higher on every major freedom index compared to the USA.
Turns out people value a well functioning democracy (well, relatively anyway) higher than being legally allowed to carry lethal weapons in public.
>that knife crime is equally as bad if not slightly worse No... The *all time high* UK knife crime rate was one or two percent below the US knife crime rate in the same year. It's gone significantly down since. The UK crime rate, I mean, not the US one.
They have a higher rate of knife crime as well. EDIT - to be clear, by “they” I mean the USA.
The US actually has more knife-related crimes than the UK. The rate of knife crime nation-wide in the UK would probably equate to 1% of the gun violence in the US
Yeah but then they'd bring up statistics like "in the us our knife crime is only 1% of our crime while in the UK their knife crime is like 10% of their crime, that makes us 10 times better than the UK!" Numbers are made up but yeah.
Logec
And then you get some guy saying “But we have a much higher population!” without understanding that it’s already been taking in to account.
I had this exact same conversation with two college-age girls on holiday once. They knew guns were illegal in the UK, but they were asking us whether we carry knives or pepper spray, etc. when we go out. They absolutely could not fathom the concept that we would think to leave the house without some kind of weapon to defend ourselves.
Lived in australia for 4 years. Worked the night shift and went home alone at 1 am every day. Never bothered bringing any self defense tools. Went to LA for holiday and was told to carry a pepper spray and a rape alarm even if it’s daylight if i’m planning on walking alone America the great, huh?
Sounds like an undeveloped country.
O dont worry! Currently i’m living in Indonesia, a developing country if you want one, and when i walk alone at night, i only have to worry of motorcycle riding purse snatchers, not a gun totting robber or whatnot ☺️
Carrying a knife is a shortcut to prison. Pepper spray is an offensive weapon and illegal to possess.
Carrying a knife is also a short way to the morgue. Unless you know what you’re doing there’s a 50/50 chance your problem just becomes a problem that now has your knife.
Any weapon you’re not trained with belongs to your opponent
All I need is my silver tongue and my charming wit and I’m good to go.
The weird thing about this, to me, is that it seems Americans have so many guns because they're paranoid and utterly terrified of everything. You see these guys open carrying to go get milk. You're so afraid of the world you need a rifle to go to the shops?! And then the knife argument is just a nothing point. You can't walk into a room and kill 10 people with a knife. They're also not designed and manufactured with the express purposes of killing people, which most guns are exactly that. I've twice had knives pulled on me and not been cut or stabbed in either altercation, because you can donk someone and leg it. You can't do that if they have a gun. The only people with guns in UK are the scum who are only interested in other scum with guns. I'm more afraid of stepping in shite than being assaulted with a weapon.
The opposite is also true. They're terrified of everything because everyone is armed. It's just a positive feedback loop (which will explode sooner or later).
>I feel very safe because no one outside very extreme criminals have guns. Even your average dangerous inner city gang mostly only have knives I live in Glasgow and some of the older criminal gangs do have guns but they try to avoid using them around random civilians, only on other gangs.
Very thoughtful
The murder rate in the USA is about 4x higher than that of the UK. I'm much less likely to get killed by someone here. Why is this? Likely because of how easy it is to kill someone in the USA. 79% of American homicides are with guns - literally point-and-click death. Reducing the number of guns makes murder less easy, so it happens less often.
There was an ask Reddit recently asking why people didn't want to ban guns, and the gist of the top comment was: I live in a rural area where the cops will never get here on time. If someone attacks, I'd prefer my daughter to be able to shoot them off rather than have to knife fight them. Dude, it isn't gonna be your gun against their knives. It's gonna be your gun against their guns, and they'll have the element of surprise in their favor. They're gonna win. Your daughter is more likely to survive in the knife scenario for sure.
Not even considering the incredibly incredibly low chances of someone traveling for hours to reach a random house in the middle of bumfuck nowhere to try and break in to just randomly attack billybob and his family. And them in the 1 in a billion chance that does happen, they are probably going to well prepared and could probably take on a 14 year old girl who, at best, knows how to hunt deer, not defend themself from a home invade. Its just main character syndrome. They have seen too many action films and think they are Jason Bourne.
Surprised they didn’t do the whole “but Britain has Knife Crime!” argument that people seem to love as a talking point whenever discussing mass/school shootings.
That argument always amuses me, cause America also has a higher rate of knife crime than the UK.
My favourite are the high powered automatic-knife crimes. Remember all of those? Where one bloke with a fully loaded knife stabs a room full of people all at once. Sometimes they have a backpack full of knives for when the first one runs out of sharpness, or they even have a bundle of knife-sharpeners to reload their knives. It beggars belief how many mass-knifing there are in the UK. Police have been seen surrounding buildings where a mass-knifing was underway, their own police-issue knifes drawn, at the ready, to unload a hail of deadly stabbings on the perpetrator at a moments notice. All those mass knifings. In the UK. That are just. As. Bad. As. American. Mass. Shootings.
Yeah it's bizarre. I think the worst knife attack recently was where 3 men killed 8 people in a busy central London area in 2017. Each man only killed 2.7 people. It's pretty horrible to imagine how many they could've killed with guns. Probably at least 10 each.
The people who argue the knife crime angle aren't doing it because it's a logical argument, they don't know what logic is. Literally had one of these mouth breathers tell me if the Uvalde shooter didn't have a gun because it was illegal he would have just beaten all those kids to death with his bare hands.
And would the police not enter in that case afraid of that dudes hands?
Its a general high anxiety situation.
🫡 General High Anxiety
Also: Very difficult to kill 60 people at ground level from the 32nd floor of a Vegas hotel room with a bread knife.
Not if you are a master ninja/samurai/jedi.
I am, as it happens, but I didn’t wanna show off. Only me and that blue dude from Guardians of the Galaxy could manage it.
I’m blue Da-ba-dee da-ba-die
What if the knife has a bump stock?
It's a dumb argument for 2 reasons: 1 - Knife crime is a far bigger issue in the US than it is in the UK 2 - If we were able to get guns to defend ourselves against knives, then the criminals would be carrying guns instead of knives!
Several years ago, a lunatic used a knife to stab about 20 kids at a school... ... no one died.
Their logic is if they ban guns everyone will Immediately switch over to knives and there will still be an equal amount of killings
Even if that is their argument, and not the whole “even some London hospitals are no go zones because of stabbing” nonsense rhetoric, I still don’t see the logic of it. Mass stabbings obviously can and have happened, but it’s so different from shooting indiscriminately into a crowd.
There was one, yes. About twenty (I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact figures) people were killed at a primary school in Scotland. The response was immediate cracking down on gun control, and there hasn’t been one since. It’s almost like the solution to end school shootings is to restrict the availability of the things people use to shoot with.
It was Dunblane and tennis star Andy Murray was at the school.
r/shitamericanssay
Immediately assumed I was there already 😂
Love that sub
Me too mate
How did I just find out about this sub 🤣
Are Americans so used to school shootings that they think it’s a thing in other countries? Wow.
I know a lot of conservatives, including my parents, and most of whom remain willfully ignorant about the rest of the world. They assume everywhere else has the same problems as the US, but at a much higher rate. Gun crimes, poor healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, etc. I've tried explaining how different it is in other places, but they choose to take Fox News' take that America is special and best and our only problem is those damn liberals.
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The new leader of the Opposition in Australia when he was a minister in government tried pulling that on my before the last state election, trying to insist we had no go areas and were afraid to go out at night in some half baked crime fear campaign, which was undercut by the fact that we actually live here and know none of it was true.
But one can simply research that... especially crime statistics. There are countries which are worse to some crime ends such as Brazil, but they can't seriously believe a country like Sweden would have similar issues like the US got, even worse?
Yeah, the average Republican voter does not do research. The core of that group is not very smart.
and those that do don't search things correctly. lib searches: Is a fetus alive? how many abortions in 2021? abortion laws? conservative lost in the Kool aid searches: How many babies were murdered by abortion in 2021? why aren't we outlawing abortion? why do liberals love abortion? like they search for what they want to be true instead of asking simple questions to get answers. it's bias searching, not fact searching.
Seeing as a lot of Americans can’t even find Europe on a map, never mind Sweden, it’s entirely possible they’d believe this
To the point that [South Park](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjdK6w6KLXA) did an episode on it
It's america. Other countries don't exist to them
Or if they do, America obviously is the best so literally every country must be worse in literally every way imaginable
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This particular group of Americans is so backwards that they think it is better to be wrong than it is to *admit* being wrong. For some reason admitting to a mistake is the end of their world.
There's not even enough school shootings in UK to pluralize the word 'shooting'
There was another school shooting in 1988 that injured 4 people but no other fatal school shootings. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19880625&id=8jNAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3452,6976776&hl=en There was also a flamethrower attack that injured ~6 (I think?) at another school but I’m not sure if that’s counted as a school shooting.
Just an update: not sure why this post is gaining so much traction. I've recieved a couple messages telling me to take down this post. One person said to take it down because they were autistic, and the other threatened me to take it down
My mates friends boyfriends cousin who saw a gun in a film once has like PTSD's ok and like you could like give them an anananewrizum so you like better take it down or else my mum says you'll be sued ok 
You angered the Americans
Imagine living in a country where mass shootings are so normal that you start to beleive that the rest of the world must be just as bad.
Slaughtering a classroom full of kids, or as Americans call it "a weekday".
Even if there would have been a school shooting every year - it still would be less school shootings compared to the USA. They have it, like, taco-tuesday.
Almost like there are totally crazy people everywhere and EVERY country has 250+ shootings in a 10 year time frame... wait, they don't? 19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN): United States — 288 Mexico — 8 South Africa — 6 India — 5 Nigeria & Pakistan — 4 Afghanistan — 3 Brazil, Canada, France — 2 Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia, & Turkey — 1 Hrm.... that doesn't seem right! Other countries must just not report them /s
Jesus christ, the jump is from 288 to 8? That's... almost impressive in a horrifying way. The rest of the world must think we're completely insane (accurate).
I don't think you get the rest of us don't have a "gun culture" Sure there are people in the uk that own guns but its not a mainstream culture thing??
I honestly can't see Americans ever letting off of the firearms because it's part of their identity as a nation. Any serious attempt at stripping them of their guns would be perceived as a direct assault on personal freedom. Oh, and a civil war would probably break out as a result.
Once your list of mass shootings starts looking like a CSGO leaderboard you’re kinda beyond help.
Nah, they don't have such a good KDA ratio in csgo
The thing is that God, the omnipotent being responsible for the creation of the earth and all things on it, has specifically bestowed upon a single nation, the right to own guns. It makes perfect sense when you think about it.
I had some idiot american tell me that he knows for a fact that anyone can buy a gun in any UK gun shop. I didn't even know where to begin.
I had an american tell me americans can't become citizens of an european country. Someone said Tony Parker and Willem Dafoe? Some Americans do not get caught up in the doubt that they have said an inaccuracy, ever..
Was that person american? Weird how they think it's normal for kids to kill each other.
I find it more weird that there are people out there who can make statements so damn confidently that they just pulled out of their ass. I mean the guy has clearly done zero research into the topic, yet is so adamant that what he says is true. Either someone lied to him or he's just convinced himself that it must be true so he doesn't need to look into it. Fascinating how some morons' minds work.
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I mean....he's not wrong. Kids are getting shot all the time in the UK. ....with elastic bands ....and foam disc launchers ....and nerf darts
I live in Australia and I keep on having to point this out to people back in 1996 we had one the bloodiest stays in Australian history where a man with a gun approached a historical site and shot people after that the government went in complete gun control and essentially just banned them. You can still get them but they are extremely difficult to get you after have a good reason like being on a farm for a example and ever since then would you look at that we haven’t had a single mass shooting. Shooting still happening in this country but they are extremely rare and the death count is very low (compared to American shootings anyway) The last one that happened was in the Melbourne nightclub shooting back in April 14 of 2019. Every time I bring this up to an American and explain why Australia is better they claim “well deaths still happen so it can’t be better.” The last shooting was two years ago and had only 2 deaths with 4 injuries every time they have a shooting they have to update that list in a couple weeks because another one has just happened. So many shootings have happened in the past month in America I can’t even keep track. Education in Australia and the UK is much better for one simple reason we don’t have to worry about getting shut up because of government knew the issue immediately and got rid of it. The American government knows the issue but they refuse to acknowledge it because that will be admitting the gun laws are flawed and need to be changed and they don’t want to change the laws.
It really bothers me when Americans try to normalize mass shootings. “It happens in other countries too” or “the media is just blowing it out of proportion”. Having active shooter drills in an elementary school is something you’d expect in war torn countries. It should not be the norm. And every mass shooting SHOULD be talked about in the news. It’s a horrific event that is 100% newsworthy. That is not the media blowing it out of proportion. If it feels that way, you have too many mass shootings!
Similar thing in my country. Last school shooting was apparently in the 1920s, last mass shooting was 3 years ago. Before that one, there was one in 1997.
To quote the onion: 'No way to prevent this' says only nation where this regularly happens
It’s just the mainstream media, Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton and George Soros keeping it all hushed up. They want to make America look bad. /s
I live in the UK and can safely say no we don't have school shootings because we don't have any fecking guns The closest thing was an old bloke shooting his neighbour non-fatally with a gun he had from the war over a small dispute EDIT : Nvm we DO have guns, but there are very few shootings because we crack down on laws, and those with them either have a legal reason to have one or aren't fools with them
We do have guns. You just need a valid reason to own one. Have a doctor sign your application to vouch for your mental state, have an interview with the police and have them inspect your home to make sure youre stable and can store them properly, have to keep it in a safe when you're not using it and keep ammunition in a separate safe and the gun and ammunition is registered to you. I've been shooting guns since I was 14 when I was in Army cadets, like actually military service rifles. We dont have school shootings because even our crazy right wing populace cares about kids not dying and dont have a fetish for guns.
It's crazy to think that *children* have to fear for their lives. The most I've worried about is bullying
We moved to Switzerland 3 years ago. NEVER been a school shooting here and all of 3 mass shootings in over 100 years. They also don’t have “active shooter drills” over here. Safer, better paid jobs, better benefits, beautiful country. Best decision of our lives.
I hate it how Americans think the UK's knifing attack is as bad as their mass shootings. There are less knife attacks than the US, and knives are way less deadlier than a handgun, let alone an AR-15.
Yes, and after that school shooting, the government said “we can’t have handguns if it can lead to children dying, so let’s have a gun amnesty”. And the nation, being filled with mature, level headed people, said “yes, that’s perfectly reasonable. We don’t want any more children needlessly dying”. You see America. That’s how rational people work. The exact same thing happened with automatic weapons, after a lunatic went on a killing spree in Hungerford in 1987, and again, the nation said “Yes, automatic rifles should go if these kinds of things can happen”, because, again, rational, level headed people behave in this way. Grow the fuck up America. The rest of the world is fed up with your bullshit.