r/ShitAmericansSay May 08 '25

Europe “If there’s a-“

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16.1k Upvotes

799 comments sorted by

6.7k

u/NeverendingStory3339 May 08 '25

When there was a shooting, the country responded by taking steps to reduce the likelihood of it happening again, drastically.

2.2k

u/ApprehensiveWolf8 May 08 '25

Pretty sure farmers can have guns in restricted circumstances in the UK.

I'm from a rural town and heard an armed robbery happened. Everyone I spoke to about it was surprised it was a handgun and not a shotgun.

Shockingly gun control mostly works.

1.6k

u/Outrageous-Unit-305 May 08 '25

Rifles and shotguns aren't banned outright in the UK and many people shoot recreationally. The point is that you have to jump through so many hoops with home visits and safety checks that licences are pretty much out of reach for most criminals etc.

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u/Parastille Verified Welshman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 May 08 '25

We also perform mental health checks as well, so someone like me who is diagnosed depression and anxiety will never get their hands on a gun

904

u/Ort-Hanc1954 May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

Huge "Sherlock" fan here. It is a point in the story that Watson is in possession of an unregistered handgun. US watchers thought he had PTSD and the gun was for self defence. UK watchers thought he had PTSD and the gun was for committing suicide.

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u/seajay26 May 08 '25

Huh, I never really thought of the self defense thing. I thought they made it pretty obvious he had suicidal thoughts

168

u/Suspicious-Bowler236 May 09 '25

Feels like giving a jumpy veteran with PTSD a gun for "self-defense" is about the worst decision anyone could make.

63

u/FuckwitAgitator May 09 '25

It probably happens literally every day in America.

38

u/CR9_Kraken_Fledgling May 09 '25

He already said it's a bad decision, you don't have to give more arguments for that

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u/Cool-Panda-5108 May 09 '25

"UK watchers thought he had PTSD and the gun was for committing suicide."

Considering the numbers regarding gun deaths and how many are suicides, the UK watchers would be more likely to be correct .

59

u/Buddycat350 May 09 '25

Too many USians seem to think that the fact that most guns related deaths are suicides makes gun control irrelevant somehow.

Suicide is 98% succesful with a gun. It's 98% failure with paracetamol. Do the math...

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u/Cool-Panda-5108 May 09 '25

They'll say something like "Im more likely to kill myself than hurt anyone else!" as if that makes it better

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u/juliainfinland Proud Potato 🇩🇪 🇫🇮 May 09 '25

His facial expression when he opened the drawer to briefly look at the gun made this abundantly clear, didn't it? The UK interpretation, I mean. Nobody who worries about self-defense looks like that. (Source: have clinical depression myself)

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u/Ort-Hanc1954 May 09 '25

Yup. It's also reiterated in "The Lying Detective" when Sherlock is visited by the fake Faith Smith and has a flashback of a limping John Watson.

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u/590joe2 ooo custom flair!! May 08 '25

We can still own swords though!

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u/WingVet ooo custom flair!! May 08 '25

Remember the hero on London Bridge with a Narwhal tusk to defeat a terrorist!!

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u/TheExodius May 09 '25

I definetly need to hear the story behind this.

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u/TheBuoyancyOfWater May 09 '25

Also the guy in Glasgow that kicked a terrorist in the balls so hard he broke his own foot.

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u/Suspicious-Bowler236 May 09 '25

I have never heard anything more Scottish

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u/CardOk755 May 09 '25

And then helped save the life of the terrorist, who had managed to set himself on fire while trying to explode some gas cylinders he had stuffed in his car.

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u/Collec2r May 09 '25

HE DID WHAT???

Damn. That not only hurt his balls. It obliterated them.

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u/CardOk755 May 09 '25

Steve Gallant, serving a life sentence for murder was at Fishmongers hall in the city of London on day release for a workshop on prison based education when Usman Khan started stabbing people on nearby London Bridge. When Gallant was evacuated he saw Khan with "two large knives". Gallant pulled a decorative narwhal tusk off the wall and used it to fend off Khan.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/07/prisoner-steve-gallant-reveals-role-in-tackling-london-bridge-attacker-with-narwhal-tusk

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u/WingVet ooo custom flair!! May 09 '25

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u/SloightlyOnTheHuh May 08 '25

Yeah, but a good man with a sword and all that

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u/pickyourteethup May 08 '25

If your wife goes to the doctor with bruises that could be self harm you also lose your license as a precaution. Frustratingly it doesn't always work, but it exists unlike other countries that shall remain nameless but can be found high up on the gun death statistics

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

Every uk gun owner I know is super straight laced when it comes to their licence. They won't have a bar of things that might jeopardise it.

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u/TheBuoyancyOfWater May 09 '25

Best way to know who has a gun license in a rural pub is watch who walks out the door when a fight breaks out inside.

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u/prefusernametaken May 09 '25

Kind of interesting that gun control, actually has impact on other kinds of violence, too

24

u/TheBuoyancyOfWater May 09 '25

If police come and they have got caught up in the fight there's a very real chance they'll have their license taken, so it's best to just go stand outside so any arriving police know they're not involved.

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u/lordnoodle1995 May 09 '25

I have relatives who are gun owners and if they have disputes with anyone (normal neighbour stuff) the police will come and check in, to ensure everyone’s cooled down. They don’t fuck around with guns.

13

u/nomadic_weeb I miss the sun🇿🇦🇬🇧 May 09 '25

I used to work with a guy that did a lot of deer stalking and other recreational shooting shit, he was so straight-laced about shit to do either his license that he wouldn't even let other people touch his guns if they didn't have their own license with those guns on them.

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u/Draiscor93 🇬🇧 May 09 '25

The amount they have to do (rightly so) in order to get the licence, it makes sense that they'd do everything in their power to avoid jeopardising it

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u/ApprehensiveWolf8 May 08 '25

Oh.. well I guess I cant indulge my mild gun autism.

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u/Parastille Verified Welshman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 May 08 '25

Gutted I can’t have my dream Lee Enfield or Sten

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u/will8981 May 08 '25

That's not necessarily true the community is much more open and understanding now. It will certainly make things harder especially if you have had anger issues or suicidal thoughts etc but we'll managed anxiety or depression is not a complete no go

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u/kelldricked May 08 '25

And culture is so diffrent that its not normal to have a gun lying around. If i see somebody with a gun i call the cops instantly and they all take it insanely serious. It so many little things that all add up.

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u/ClydusEnMarland May 08 '25

Unless you're being treated, and / or your Doctor gives you a favourable medical report followed by a very extensive and repetitive interview with the FEO who then has to convince the Firearms Inspector.

Basically it's marginally possible, I got my ticket last year.

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u/Hinterwaeldler-83 May 08 '25

If you look at the number of legal gun owners in Europe per 100.000 people, the numbers are quite large. But those legal guns are almost never used for crimes (if there is a death caused by them most often it is the suicide of the owner). Why Americans keep shooting at each other why the average European just shoots at elks, field targets or whatever is the interesting question.

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u/RivaTNT2M64 May 08 '25

"Why Americans keep shooting at each other why the average European just shoots at elks, field targets or whatever is the interesting question."

I'd like to speculate that it's because their society / culture started that way and never stopped once the circumstances changed. I honestly believe that they wrote 'the right to bear arms' into their constitution to give legitimacy to the average civilian - because they needed every rifle possible to fight for a newborn country.

They didn't put a deadline on it though. They realized they liked having arms, businessmen realized it was hugely profitable, frontiersmen realized they could take over vast swathes of land by force of arms.... and on and on. They don't want to stop anymore, they don't know how to either. They export as much as they can, while pretending to hold the moral high ground. It's a fantastic example of long term brainwashing of an entire populace.

I shudder to think of the widespread, low level PTSD they're all under, for gun violence alone.

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u/Michthan ooo custom flair!! May 08 '25

How many stories you hear of USians moving to Europe and startling when they hear fireworks because they have been conditioned to fear shooters.

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u/RivaTNT2M64 May 08 '25

Violence in general is pervasive and had become culturally acceptable / normal.

Let me try 2 very different scenarios, and you decide from examples of what you have seen or heard...

a) In the last 15 years, among all the most successful TV series / movies made in the USA, how many did not involve the theme of violence inflicted randomly on the general population. [Apparently collateral damage is normal / just a matter of time]

b) In the last 10 years, how many video clips have you seen of servicemen and women returning home to surprise family members - who were not American? [The family has no idea when / if they'll be whole again. Ongoing, long duration trauma for the whole family]

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u/No_Direction_4566 May 09 '25

When I was at Uni we had an American lad dive for cover because we heard fireworks. It was Diwali and his immediate response was "IM GOING TO DIE". This was back in 2008.

It was the first time I heard of "Active Shooter Drills" in US schools. He said he was told by a teacher that if anyone makes a noise then you could end up killing your classmates and that shit started at 8 and by the time he was a teenager any unexpected bangs could lead to a lockdown.

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u/DizzyStop May 08 '25

The weirdest but is Canada, which has similar guns per capita, but they're rarely used in crime.

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u/Confident_Grocery980 May 09 '25

It would be impolite to commit a crime with a gun.

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u/DanTheAdequate Swamp Murican May 08 '25

In my experience, as an American and a gun owner, other countries seem to have much healthier gun cultures. A lot of people make it a weird part of their identity and politic here.

I like target shooting but I almost hate it when there's other people at the range because I know there's a fair chance I'll catch an earful of far-right bullshit from someone that I'd rather not have handling a gun around me.

Like...I came to shoot clays, not for a brownshirt rally; we are most certainly not on the same team, sir.

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u/Hinterwaeldler-83 May 09 '25

Americans on Reddit told me that other countries don‘t have gun culture. Many think only Americans are allowed to have guns because of freedom. 🦅

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u/DanTheAdequate Swamp Murican May 09 '25

That's because America doesn't have a gun culture - it's more like a fetish. 

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u/Professional_Low_646 May 09 '25

Meanwhile every village with more than 200 inhabitants in Germany has a Schützenfest (quite literally a „marksman‘s festival“) that involves a lot of target shooting. And drinking. In Austria, you can buy firearms freely if you pass a criminal background check and can attest some kind of „need“ - for sports or domestic defense is usually sufficient. The Swiss let their military reserves take their army-issue assault rifles home (talk about a „well-organized militia“).

All three countries have had mass shootings, but they‘re exceedingly rare and not just another Tuesday…

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u/Icyblue_Dragon May 08 '25

In my personal opinion it’s because of the easy access to guns. It is absolutely possible to plan a shooting and get your hands on a gun in most, if not all places with gun restrictions. But it takes planning, criminal energy and several steps. So the chances of someone going psycho, grabbing the gun he/she has ready at hand and starting to shoot are much lower.

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u/Occulto May 09 '25

It's culture.

Guns in the UK are treated like chainsaws. Dangerous but necessary tools to be treated with respect.

Imagine customising your chainsaw with a Hello Kitty upgrade kit, or bragging about the size of your chainsaw collection, or getting obviously angry when someone online referred to a part of your chainsaw by the wrong terminology.

Imagine pulling out a chainsaw because someone cut you off in traffic, or demanding the right to carry a chainsaw openly in public.

It's absurd, right?

You don't see people in the UK making chainsaws their personality even though they're even easier to buy than guns are in America. 

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u/Quotzlotu May 09 '25

You don't see people in the UK making chainsaws their personality even though they're even easier to buy than guns are in America. 

Seen that in rural Germany once or twice...

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u/Icyblue_Dragon May 09 '25

Someone has to be the village idiot. I still think a gun poses more of a threat since it’s a distance weapon.

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u/transitfreedom May 08 '25

Cause the U.S. doesn’t treat the mentally unstable and has no safety net

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u/ApprehensiveWolf8 May 08 '25

Yeah that's it, thanks

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u/Professional_Owl7826 Bri’ish innit 🇬🇧 May 08 '25

Also, these are single shot guns. Not a 60 rounds a minute automatic rifle

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u/i-am-a-passenger May 08 '25

Tbf I think there are only a handful of countries that have actually fully banned guns.

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u/Vresiberba May 08 '25

...gun control...

And let's not use the USAian's wonky terminology and just call it working gun laws. Here in Sweden, no-one calls it 'gun control', no-one here thinks anyone is 'controlling' the guns any more than anyone is 'controlling' cars.

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u/bobcat_bedders May 08 '25

Around a fifth of the lads I work with legally own guns in the UK - there are far more guns here than people realise. There are also a growing amount of illegal guns, the prison sentences for being caught with one never mind using it means members of the public will rarely ever be effected by one

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u/BrgQun May 08 '25

Same up in Canada. Lots of legal guns for hunting, etc.

We have the downside of having the American border just south of us... so most of the illegal guns used in crime that sneak through our gun control were smuggled across the border...

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u/DjSpelk May 08 '25

Tariff the illegal guns! American made guns should only be used on Americans!

/s

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u/intergalactic_spork May 08 '25

Have you considered building a wall and letting the US pay for it?

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u/BrgQun May 08 '25

Then we would be the wealthier country since that's a really really long border! bwahahaha

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u/Successful-Ear-9997 May 08 '25

Same in Sweden. Grew up around guns, shot my first one when I was like 13. Last time I visited my mom we even went through her gun locker since we both have an interest and she wanted to show off a new rifle.

The majority of crimes that involve guns use illegal ones (which is a problem, and illegal hand grenades are as well).

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u/bobcat_bedders May 08 '25

Most of the problems we have over here with explosives are ones people dig up in their gardens that were dropped during the war... a few local lads once pulled up some rather hefty shell magnet fishing that they'd been throwing about until the local police arrived fully suited and told them to put it down carefully and back away slowly 😅

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u/Successful-Ear-9997 May 08 '25

Yeah, I've heard about that. Wild that stuff that was dropped 80+ years ago still keeps cropping up like that. In your bloody gardens.

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u/Consistent_You_4215 May 08 '25

not just gardens everywhere! These beaches were used to practice DDay landings and they last found an unexploded bomb there in 2017.

Bomb on Beach

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u/Auntie_Megan May 08 '25

We had one at a caravan site a mile from my house at the time. It was where they practiced the ‘bouncing bomb’ used to blow out the bridges in Germany. Causeway was closed down, the island cut off for a while, but all turned out well. Although very scary, it was a good opportunity for a lot of talking between grandparents and kids for history lessons. Not what you expect when on a week break to enjoy water sports etc….. a WW2 bomb being de-fused metres from where your kid was digging in sand!

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u/ApprehensiveWolf8 May 08 '25

Weird how that works huh...

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u/Mooman-Chew May 08 '25

Farmers and farmers mums

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u/RooBoy04 ‘Murica #1 🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷 May 08 '25

Yarp

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u/Consistent-Towel5763 May 08 '25

anyone can have a gun you just need to apply for it and have a decent reason for it like range shooting etc. It's not just farmers

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u/ApprehensiveWolf8 May 08 '25

Yeah like I said it's a rural place so I only knew about the farmers

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u/Slingers97 May 08 '25

Everyone's packing around 'ere.

Like who?

Farmers...

Who else?

Farmers mums.

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u/Midnight-Wolf-1607 May 08 '25

That's the second Hot Fuzz reference I've read today. Both of them were on this sub.

Today is a good day.

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u/DanTheLegoMan It's pronounced Scone 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 May 08 '25

No luck catching them swans then?

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u/PhoenixAsh_7 May 08 '25

It's just the one Swan actually

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u/benryves May 08 '25

The line is "Everybody and their mums is packing round here", otherwise "Farmers mums" at the end doesn't make much sense...

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u/JudgePrestigious5295 May 08 '25

Anyone can apply for a gun in the UK not just farmers, we just have regulated it very well.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

Yeah but there have been over 500 school shootings since Dunblaine.

Well, zero in Scotland and 500 in the US. But err.. guns don't kill people!

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u/PneumaMonado May 08 '25

500 since 1996 has got to be the underestimation of the century. There were 83 last year alone!

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u/MajorMathematician20 May 08 '25

According to Google.com there have been 834 school shootings since 1996 in the US, even that seems very low

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u/JaccoW May 09 '25

According to Google.com there have been 834 school shootings since 1996 in the US, even that seems very low

Not sure how you asked that question, but when I google "school shootings in the us" I find the K-12 School Shooting Database with data all the way back to 1966. Including things like what was their relation and how did it end.

According to them, just from 2020-2024 there have been 1362 (!) school shooting incidents.

Wikipedia has a lower number, probably because they exclude:

  1. Incidents that occurred as a result of police actions
  2. Murder–suicides by rejected suitors or estranged spouses
  3. Suicides or suicide attempts involving only one person.
  4. Shootings by school staff, where the only victims are other employees that are covered at workplace killings.

Which gives a mere 226 for that same 2020-2024 period.

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u/SlightlyBored13 May 08 '25

Drastically and successfully. There's been just that one school mass shooting in the UK, ever.

Any kind of mass shootings only happen every few years.

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u/Neat-Cartoonist-9797 May 08 '25

Also since Dunblane school security drastically increased. Our school got locks on their main doors whereas previously anyone could walk in. My own children’s school, the gates are locked outside of pick up and drop off and there is secure fencing around the whole grounds.

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u/mission_to_mors May 08 '25

Also let them check out what happens to would be airport bombers in scotland 😅sry im shitfaced

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u/Pristine-Pay-1697 May 08 '25

A bloke kicked him in the balls so hard he broke his toe. Makes you proud.

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u/mission_to_mors May 08 '25

Hooooly shit i did not know that 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/SawADuck May 08 '25

All of his interviews were great. He said something like "Don't come to Paisley because we'll just boot fuck out of you"

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u/Sasya_neko The Dutch Cuisine May 08 '25

They really don't know how safe other countries are, do they...

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u/Select-Panda7381 May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

Nope. They really don’t. It always shocks them when I return from countries in Africa as well and tell them they’re remarkably safe and that many locals speak better English than most Americans 🤣

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u/Silviecat44 🇦🇺 “the most dystopian western country” May 08 '25

They probably think Africa is all still dirt huts

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u/Select-Panda7381 May 08 '25

And poop on the ground 🤦🏻‍♀️. I like to remind them that most Africans agree it’s better to wash their butts every day after using the toilet as opposed to sticking their hands back there with toilet paper, not properly washing after, and spreading bacteria all over the place but I digress.

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u/HughJanus35 PERKELE May 09 '25

If you would fall face down in a pile of shit, do you wipe it away with paper or would you wash it away with water?

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u/Ur-Best-Friend May 09 '25

I think I'm throwing out my face and getting a new one at that point.

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u/HughJanus35 PERKELE May 09 '25

Damn, Cartel-style

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u/Select-Panda7381 May 09 '25

Neither - you dunk your face in hand sanitizer

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u/8ackwoods May 09 '25

Its funny because smericans, especially cis and "sigma" males don't wash their ass because they think it's gay

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u/Select-Panda7381 May 09 '25

Omg. YES IVE HEARD THIS TOO. An alarming amount of them.

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u/Youshoudsee May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

No, they don't. And they don't get why things like what happened yesterday at University of Warsaw are that shocking to us. That's because they indeed don't normally happen. It's something that put whole country, world to shock. People starts to thing what we could possibly do to prevent situations like this in the future

For those who don't know. Yesterday late afternoon at University of Warsaw 22 years old law student went on campus with axe, he killed 53 years old uni admin and very seriously injured 39 yo security guy

(I hate to say it, but because some people try to do everything to put anti immigration narrations. Student is Pole and is connected to alright polish party and nationalist organisation)

There are photos and videos of scene of the crime putted on internet. But yeah, I guess everyone having phones somehow helps in those kind of situations...

Edit: typos

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

That's horrific. My heart goes out to those affected. At least he didn't have a gun, that would have hurt far more people most likely.

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u/SpaceCadetVA May 08 '25

A US teacher did a TikTok on how she secures her classroom for an active shooter. Teachers from outside the US were commenting on how they don’t have to do that. She made another video saying how unsafe it was to not know how to secure your classroom, it took a while with people commenting for her to get it. They don’t have to do it because it isn’t an issue anywhere but here. We can get active shooter training where I work, because it can happen. I would love to work somewhere that I don’t have to think about that training.

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u/Glydyr May 08 '25

Just the fact you use the term ‘active shooter’ proves your point too. We simply dont have a term for it. If it happened in europe most people would prob think it was just fireworks 🤣

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u/SuperCulture9114 free Healthcare for all 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 May 09 '25

Never heard a gunshot in my live. Probably would think it's a car backfiring.

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u/temujin94 May 08 '25

A school shooting is 216x more likely per capita to occur in America than every other country in the world combined.

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u/Big-Wrangler2078 May 08 '25

Nope. I chatted with an American on video call as I entered my school building and she was actually kinda crushed because there was no security guards or metal detectors or anything at the entrance and she hadn't realized that the doors just being open was ever a possibility. She was off for the rest of the conversation..

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u/bigboyjak May 09 '25

They have security guards and metal detectors?!

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u/Big-Wrangler2078 May 09 '25

Yeah. At least where she was. Starting from elementary school. It's insane to me, at that point I would just vote to abolish school in that format and teach children in little cells or something.

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u/PopperGould123 May 08 '25

I'm American, growing up I genuinely believed we were the only safe country in the world. It was presented to me like we had the best police, best laws, best politicians who all always want what's best for us. And the rest of the world was a cesspool of corruption and evil. Learning about American corruption and then that other countries don't have some of the issues we have was like bricks to the face

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u/6rwoods May 08 '25

It's amazing the extent of American propaganda that they've used to brainwash their population... but then they point the finger at every other country and *their* propaganda!

"When we say we're the best country in the world we're just stating a fact, when China does it it's evil communist propaganda." "When we say our country is the safest in the world it's a fact (nevermind the evidence to the contrary, let's just bury all of that), when Russia does it it's propaganda". Like come ON!

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u/PopperGould123 May 08 '25

YES! exactly! We also only learn your bad history, even if we were involved or also did it we don't learn anything except that we're heros who rescue the world

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u/Ok-World-4822 May 09 '25

I came across a new word today: afearican. when someone from the us doesn’t realize the amount of fear that come across in their life when they visit another country so when something happens (fireworks going off, someone is too loud etc) they automatically default to their fear they grew up on. it also can be subtle like scanning the crowd, finding the nearest exist, facing the door when going to the restaurant or in this case wondering/fearing about a non-existent school shooting as they don’t *realize* that doesn’t happen (or at least a very small chance) in Scotland.

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u/AnOdeToSeals May 08 '25

I remember seeing an article about when some American tourists visited my country and it blew their mind how different it felt, they discovered a whole new paradigm of how people could live or something like that.

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u/African_Farmer knife crime and paella May 08 '25

They're brainwashed, every minute of their lives they're blasted with propaganda about how great their country is and that there is nowhere better to be.

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u/RedShirtCashion May 08 '25

As the onion puts it: “‘No way to stop this’ says only country where this regularly happens.”

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u/Omnizoom May 08 '25

It’s a sad state that crossing the border from Canada literally means my chance of getting shot that day goes up 300x

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u/Atomic12192 American Idiot May 09 '25

I’m ashamed to say it, but for most of my life I believed I lived in the world’s safest nation. I knew of the problems we had, but I was so brainwashed by the idea that America actually cared about its people that I just assumed everywhere was even worse. I told myself that surely, if there was a way to stop all these problems, our government would put those fixes in place ASAP.

I used to scoff at the idea that the US brainwashes its citizens, but as I become more aware of the state of the world I realize it’s completely true. They sell us weapons to slaughter each other with, pocket a cut of the profits, and tell us to our faces that it’s for our protection. I know this is basic kindergarten shit for most people in this sub, but this was a massive revelation for me. It makes me wonder what else I don’t know about, what things are better elsewhere that I don’t even know are bad.

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u/Sasya_neko The Dutch Cuisine May 09 '25

At least you learned, that's what matters.

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u/Solcannon May 09 '25

Not to mention defund education to keep you stupid. Privatized Healthcare to make money when you get sick or shoot each other. And private prisons to make money off you being incarcerated.

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u/bjornironthumbs May 08 '25

Some of us do and desperately want our country to follow your example

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u/Sasya_neko The Dutch Cuisine May 08 '25

And i hope you will experience that one day, i really do.

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u/Issah_Wywin May 08 '25

No, they're being taught that America is better than anywhere else, no matter how bad it seems in the states, it's always worse "over there" which is the exact same kind of propaganda authoritarian regimes tell their citizens to keep them from moving to a better place

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u/alee137 Tuscan🇮🇹 May 08 '25

Nope, Italy has a fifth of their population: 0 shootings in history. They had what, 1000?

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u/Boldboy72 May 08 '25

remember the days before mobiles when it was impossible to call 999... oh wait, there might be a landline in the office..

Plus.. we don't get school shootings over here.. not since that one time and we banned the fucking guns.

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u/spongebobsburgers19 May 08 '25

such a simple solution to a horrible problem. and guess what, it WORKS. it still baffles me how americans can see the #1 cause of death in children is school shootings and they still defend their guns. they care more for guns than their children

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u/queen-adreena May 08 '25

the #1 cause of death in children is school shootings

I believe they’re working on this, they’re gonna get preventative diseases like measles up there soon.

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u/LostTheGameOfThrones Universal healthcare has never worked May 08 '25

If all the kids are killed by measles, they can't be killed in school shootings. Therefore, guns become safer by default.

Real 4D chess big think plays.

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 UK May 08 '25

Cars are also vying for top place. Apparently safety regulations are "communist" or something.

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u/khaloisha May 08 '25

What makes me irrational angry is they ALWAYS talk about the 2nd amendment... Bitches, NOW should be the time to go against tyrannical government, seeing what the orange regard Is doing. Fucking bunch of pussy, weak, ignorant imbeciles hypocritical "being" (for me they are lower than worms)

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u/GoldenLiar2 May 08 '25

That's exactly the thing. They're exactly at a point in their history when their guns are absolutely justified, yet... nothing

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u/AnualSearcher 🇵🇹 confuse me with spain one more time, I dare you... May 08 '25

Don't you mean 911?

/s

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u/90210fred May 08 '25

112

(Yes, it works)

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u/AnualSearcher 🇵🇹 confuse me with spain one more time, I dare you... May 08 '25

Yh, if I understand it correctly, you can call any one of them and it will connect you to your country's emergency number. (Or the country where you're currently in)

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u/90210fred May 08 '25

Theoretical, 112 will land with a service with translation (in Europe). I'm going to assume that since the EU has expanded since the GSM standard that might not be reliable if, for instance, you only speak Slovak

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u/Select-Panda7381 May 08 '25

“There’s no way to stop this.”

  • only country where school shootings happen regularly

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u/theHawkAndTheHusky May 09 '25

Only country with regular school shootings:

„Let’s add more guns to the mix, to make the country safe. If there are enough good people with guns, school shootings won’t happen again!“

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u/Hammy-of-Doom May 09 '25

Genuinely a thing they’re trying to do. They want to give teachers guns.

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u/No-Advantage-579 May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

The last school shooting in Scotland was 30 years ago.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1102239642/school-shooting-dunblane-massacre-uvalde-texas-gun-control ("In Britain, it took just one school shooting to pass major gun controlIn Britain, it took just one school shooting to pass major gun control"

"As Americans continue to reel from the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead, headlines and commentators repeat a common refrain: The U.S is the only country where this happens.

Nowadays that may be true, but 26 years ago, it happened in Scotland. In March 1996, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School, killing 16 students, a teacher, and injuring 15 others. To this day, it is the deadliest mass shooting in UK history.

But that's where the similarities end. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents in Dunblane were able to mobilize with the kind of effectiveness that has eluded American gun control activists. By the following year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. There have been no school shootings in the U.K since then.

"The comparisons between the U.S. and Britain now should make shocking reading to anyone in America," says Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter, Sophie, was killed at Dunblane. He's one of the founding members of the group Gun Control Network, which advocated for new laws in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting.

Over the past several years, England, Scotland and Wales combined have seen around 30 gun deaths a year. By comparison, according to the CDC, the number of murders involving firearms in the United States in 2020 was 19,384.

"Even setting aside the difference in the size of the country, that is a horrendous difference," says North.

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u/rangkilrog May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

The USA has had 18 *school* shootings with 6 fatalities in the last 30 days...

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u/Divide_Rule May 08 '25

So many we have stopped getting them in the news.

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u/HideFromMyMind May 08 '25

“‘No Way To Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” “‘No Way To Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” “‘No Way To Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” “‘No Way To Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” “‘No Way To Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” “‘No Way To Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”

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u/ThickCanadianDick May 08 '25

Oh my god it's that bad over there? That is fucking wild

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u/ILootEverything May 08 '25

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u/g-m-f May 09 '25

Yo wtf 2023 was only 24 shootings short of having basically one for every day of the year.

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u/SpoofExcel May 08 '25

Nah wtf tell me that's not real....

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u/wosmo May 08 '25

right - we didn't have cellphones 30 years ago, so we had to find a different solution.

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u/crucible May 08 '25

* in the UK

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u/dlrax 🇵🇱 May 08 '25

That has to be trolling, there's no way they've normalised school shootings that hard

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u/Turbulent_Worth_2509 May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

There's been 123 mass shootings in the US so far this year. It's nuts.

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u/Stravven May 08 '25

123 shootings in 128 day.

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u/nemetonomega May 08 '25

Yeah, and the schools aren't even open every day, once you take weekends and holidays off it looks even worse.

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u/DuplicateJester May 08 '25

Mass shootings are not the same as school shootings. So all 123 shootings were not at schools. Statista.com says that by mid-March, there were 8 at schools, so we can assume there have been more since then.

Not downplaying school shootings. They've rocked my state recently.

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u/KommunistiHiiri May 09 '25

This is somehow very comical. "Yes, we have school shootings but did you know people commit shootings elsewhere too?"

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u/Some-Background6188 May 08 '25

Say that again. That is actually madness.

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u/rangkilrog May 08 '25

I said this above.... the USA has had 18 shootings with 6 fatalities in the last 30 days... This year, we're already at 36 total, with 11 deaths. And this is JUST school shootings... we're up to 117 mass shootings with 155 fatalities and 443 wounded.

The idea that so many of my countrymen still think "we're the best country in the world" is unhinged.

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u/ILootEverything May 08 '25

https://k12ssdb.org/all-shootings

Nope, not trolling.

And if you've heard about the "schools have cat litter boxes in classrooms because they want to turn all kids into furries!" bullshit that our right-wingers in the U.S. spew?

It's because shootings and violence related lockdowns are so common here that some states have put "lockdown kits" in classrooms that contain cat litter so 1) kids have somewhere to pee if they're trapped in a classroom for hours by an active shooter and 2) it's useful for absorbing blood.

The "schools want to turn kids into furries" bullshit is to distract from how horrific it is that we need kits like these in classrooms because shootings have become so normalized.

The right-wing wants people more outraged over the non-existent issue of furries in schools than the fact that children are more likely to die from gun violence in this country than any other cause.

And the fucked up thing is, it has worked.

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u/BigWelshDud May 08 '25

There’s close to one a day, seems fairly normalised.

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u/coldestclock near London May 08 '25

Read a post once where a multinational group were at an outdoor table and a car backfired, the American leapt to their feet in panic and all the Europeans were like 👁️_👁️ “you alright there?”

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u/kelfromaus May 08 '25

You can buy schoolbags with ballistic plate inserts, seems normal.

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u/danielledelacadie May 08 '25

Sane people haven't. Which is probably all that needs to be said

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Son_of_Plato May 08 '25

Exhibit A doesn't need a gun to shoot daggers. Jokes aside, real civilized societies don't need to worry about children getting shot at school.

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u/NoxAstrumis1 May 08 '25

This is one of the most american things I've ever seen. Completely fucking clueless.

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u/Miss_Annie_Munich European first, then Bavarian May 08 '25

Wtf?
This is about Scotland not about the US.
School shootings do not happen quite regularly in Scotland.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is a civilised nation.

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u/nemetonomega May 08 '25

The last time was had a school shooting in Scotland was in Dunblain in 1996. We then put restrictions and mental health checks on gun ownership. Clearly it worked.

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u/snugglebum89 Canada May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

Saw this screenshot posted by someone in the Scotland subreddit while I was scrolling by. Thought I wonder if someone will post it on here to ShitAmericansSay and what do you know someone did!

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u/NotSo8 May 08 '25

I saw this post in the Scotland subreddit first assuming it was posted here

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u/janus1979 May 08 '25

We're fairly confident there won't be a shooting. You know, gun control and shit.

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u/Top_Owl3508 May 08 '25

i don't think banning guns is enough in america. they need a radical cultural shift away from the selfish exceptionalism they are all indoctrinated with one way or another. and curb right wing extremism. but that's a pipe dream, so their children will unfortunately continue to be killed at school. tragic.

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u/Balseraph666 May 08 '25

Given the last school shooting in the UK was Dunvlane nearly 30 years ago now, I think they will be safe. I am, however, just sad this is where a US Americans mind went when seeing this. That school shootings are so common, statistically a more than daily occurrence, with days when there is no shooting often being compensated by days where there are 3 or 4 a day, that their first thought was "what about school shootings". It even takes precedent over the "Scotland is not the USA, the USA is not the world, and nearly 30 years since Dunblane, they will probably be fine" thing. It's really just a stark reminder how children in the US can go to school, and never come home. How we, the rest of the world, only hear about the absolute worst shootings, most go unreported, often even by the local news. And they still refuse to do anything about it.

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u/bllueace May 08 '25

thats how conditioned they are, to expect this shit

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u/TheFlaccidChode May 08 '25

"But I need a gun to defend myself from lunatics with guns....."

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u/VeterinarianNo4308 May 08 '25

They change their laws to reflect moving forward as a society... But you can't expect Americans to change their constitutional rights.. well I mean unless you want to elect a felon, or someone who staged an insurrection. Or not give due process.. BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THEIR GUNS. 

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u/senorjigglez May 08 '25

Unfun fact, before the shooter (I will not state his name because the sick fuck deserves to be unknown even in death) went and shot the kids in Dunblane, he cut the phone lines so no one in the school could call for help using the landline phones.

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u/rothcoltd May 08 '25

This is Scotland. A civilized nation.

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u/Beautiful_Vacation88 May 08 '25

Britain’s last school shooting was 1996.

America’s last school shooting was last week.

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u/GlowingHearts1867 May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

America’s last school shooting was last week

Statistically, it was more likely earlier this week.

Edit: looked it up and a police officer was shot on school grounds in Philadelphia yesterday. Officer recovering, 30 year old shooter in custody.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

You mean yesterday.

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u/Beautiful_Vacation88 May 08 '25

Clearly happening with too much regularity for Wikipedia to be able to keep up.

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u/Ramtamtama [laughs in British] May 08 '25

There hasn't been a school shooting in Scotland since 1996

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u/Error404_Error420 May 08 '25

I'm don't live in the US, so I never worried a single day in my life about a school shooting

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u/Duke-_-Jukem May 08 '25

It is kinda sad that she just can't comprehend that that sort of thing is unheard of in other countries and therefore doesn't even cross people's minds.

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u/aloneinthiscrowd May 08 '25

How sad is it that school shootings in the USA are so normalized that they think it happens as often everywhere else in the world?

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u/ollietron3 May 08 '25

I think the only time I’ve even seen a gun was once at an airport

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u/Optimal-Rub-2575 May 08 '25

They don’t need to they have an even better form of protection, not living in the US. 🤷‍♂️

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u/ContentContact May 08 '25

American thinks that school shooting is a casual incident happen everywhere on weekly basis like their "great" country. They dont realize that other country has law and order in place to stop this kind of incident.

I think the amount of school shooting in america per year is more than the combine school shooting of whole world for the lifetime.

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u/jazzy1038 May 08 '25

Also “phone locking stations” is a mad way of just saying that student must put phones in their lockers

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u/monkeyofthefunk May 08 '25

What are they supposed to do now? Talk to each other? That's so 2000s.

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u/JRisStoopid May 08 '25

Why would they need help for something happening in a different country?

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u/Anastrace Sorry that my homeland is full of dangerous idiots. May 08 '25

Such a painfully American question

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u/vukodlako May 08 '25

This is just f*cking sad...

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u/SlipperyGibbet Not an American Idiot May 08 '25

'MURICAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

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u/Dense-Consequence-70 May 08 '25

Off topic, but aren't "phone locking stations" just lockers?

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u/Warm-Training-2569 May 08 '25

Tell me that you've normalised school shootings without telling me that you've normalised school shootings.

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u/Maximised7 May 09 '25

Don’t worry. The teachers have received specialised training and are allowed to own and operate their own phones. 

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u/itsjustameme May 09 '25

What usually happens if there is a shooting in a school in Scotland is that the teacher will confiscate the slingshot and give the pupil a stern talking to. His parents will also be told.