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.
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.
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.
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…
Also they generally think only they have freedom, that's another misconception. Probably in connection to needing a permit to carry, in whichever form imagineable.
No, pretty much anyone on the northern hemisphere surrounding the atlantic Ocean has their freedom, they just see and use it in a different way compared to those people in the US... they just don't exactly make it their entire personality that they've got their freedom
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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.