Gun Control – a European (more specifically Austrian) perspective

When talking to Europeans about the USA a rather commonplace response is that the „Americans are crazy“. (Please forgive the European’s lack of verbal acuity concerning the US. Yes we know that America is bigger than just the USA – however when we say “Americans” we mean almost exclusively the US population.) Quite understandably so, for plenty of what is going on in the US – or at least what the media is presenting us - paints a rather unsettling picture compared to European standards. You could argue that what the media presents you as truth and fact should be taken with more than just a grain of salt - and you would be absolutely right! The reasonable thing to do is to try and strip away as much propaganda and opinion-making as possible, consulting as many news sources from around the globe as possible, compare notes and avoid jumping to conclusions prematurely. Not many people do that and admittedly: it is a tedious task that few have the time and nerve to put in the work.

However much salting and stripping away you try to do when it comes to the age old topic of the American obsession with firearms, it just won’t make it seem very normal to us Europeans. From a European perspective it seems very strange that a tool so dangerous and deadly is loved by so many.

As a European you sort of have a fear – or at least an aversion - of guns, which stems from our upbringing (as likely the American love for guns does). You are told from a very young age that guns are dangerous and they are mostly presented to you in two contexts: Professionals (police, hunters, military) and criminals. Thats it. So as regular joes we tend to distance ourselves from guns. We like them in action movies and we play with toy guns as children but we don’t want to have the real deal around because legally only the professionals have guns and everyone else who has one is most likely a criminal or at least very suspicious. Yes you can legally own a weapon and use it at a shooting range – and people do. Most people however do not own a gun and plenty have not even touched a firearm in their lifetime (except for those who served in the military of course).

Compared to the US, private gun ownership in Europe is more or less negligible. Do we feel more vulnerable, less protected, less able to defend ourselves in the light of this lack of private weaponry? Most people in Europe will tell you that this is not the case. They may feel uneasy because of other reasons, like immigration, the rise of the extreme right, the craze of the extreme left, job insecurity, etc. Plenty of reasons to be concerned, however the lack of guns is not a top contestant in that list.

It seems safe to say: many (not all!) Americans do love their guns. They seem to feel safer and more able to defend themselves. From a European perspective this seems at least somewhat understandable, given the picture we have about the sheer amount of violence and crime in the US. Its just not normal for us to be told, when on vacation in the bigger US cities, to not visit certain parts of the city and don’t go out alone at night. There are plenty of American vloggers on Youtube that have moved to Europe who talk about the differences between, say the US and Germany. Many could not believe that you can just go out at night alone without having to be afraid of someone mugging you. Of course it can and does happen, but its not so commonplace that you would reasonably expect it. They feel an enormous relief not having to be on guard all the time.

Do we have mass shootings in Europe? Yes we do. Crime and violence are arguably part of human nature and it is very naive to think that it will ever go away. If you prefer to think in black and white terms: bad people will do bad things and good people will.. well at least try to do good things. Even if by some divine intervention you could turn all people “good” (whatever that means) there would still be a portion of the population that would do bad things just through sheer stupidity.

Lets just agree, for sake of argument, that violence is part of being human and will stay with us for good.

This is, in fact, one of the points that advocates of the second amendment present to defend their position. It is true that, even with strict gun laws, you can not prevent people from illegally obtaining firearms and shooting people. I can’t think of any reasonable person who would doubt this proposition. It is, however, just as reasonable to say that the more guns available and the easier the access, the more likely they will be used in violent crimes. Yes you can kill someone with the most primitive tools – you can just club someone to death with a brick and that person will be as dead as if you’d shot them in the head point blank. However, entering a public place with a brick and the intention of killing 20 people seems like a very bold and rather delusional plan. You will be taken out very quickly even if none of the people around carry a weapon of any sort. This is the crucial difference – you can kill more people more quickly the more advanced your arsenal is. Restricting access to firearms will make it very much more difficult for someone to commit violent crimes of the scope and scale we see in the United States.

US weapon enthusiasts seem to feel that taking away their guns is like throwing them back into the middle ages, curtailing their freedom and leaving them completely exposed to the whims and wishes of their government. A right and freedom bestowed upon them by their founding fathers more than two centuries ago. Considering that this was a different time with different people and different needs one is bound to wonder why modern US citizens think of parts of their constitution in quasi religious terms.

Upon closer inspection one could argue that there is in fact no real freedom to bear arms. If the right to bear arms shall not be infringed, then why can’t some mentally ill person in the US have a nuclear warhead? Why can’t terrorists bring a full compliment of guns on their intercontinental flight? True – you can’t bring anything that remotely resembles a weapon on board a plane, but the argument remains the same. If it’s not the weapon but the people that are the problem, then why can’t you have weapons on planes, but at the same time a full arsenal at home? It does not sound very consistent. It seems clear that on some level the freedom of the individual is restricted by a form of gun control in spite of the second amendment.

If you think you can defend yourself against the government because you have a firearm, you might want to think again. Given the type of arsenal and training that the US military has, the public seems to have lost this kind of arms race long before it started.

The NRA has for many decades done an immaculate job in convincing the public that once they take away your guns, you are basically screwed. One wonders if they did that because they are deeply concerned about the wellbeing of the US public, or about their influence and profit, given that the USA is one hell of a market when it comes to guns. Any business would be insane to do anything that might compromise their market. It’s either guns or slavery/communism/dictatorship/[insert apocalyptic scenario]. You have to believe there to be no middle ground in order for this sort of propaganda to work.

Meanwhile over here we go out at night and continue to wonder what nasty news those crazy Americans will produce next.

Oh and yes – we are aware that its not all Americans. The ones who don’t buy into play this game of fear mongering have our deepest sympathies.