I had an online exchange with a guy from New Zealand who casually mentioned that he’d never come to America because everybody carrying a gun scared him. He was serious. I don’t know if he had only a vague knowledge of life in America, or had based his assumption on American TV or what, but he said he was too afraid of being shot to come here.
I explained to him that I lived in rootin’ tootin’ Texas and had never carried a gun, or seen anybody who wasn’t hunting carrying a gun. He was very surprised but said he was still too afraid to risk it.
To be fair, I don’t know all that much about New Zealand.
We were looking at a magazine cover with a picture of Margaret Thatcher in my (college) freshman comp course a few weeks ago. One of the students wanted to know who she was – not as in, he didn’t recognize the picture, but as in, he’d been told it was Margaret Thatcher and didn’t know what she was famous for.
Another one had to ask what a hedgehog was, which floored me. Granted, we don’t have wild ones around here, but you’d think most people would have at least heard of hedgehogs by the time they reach the age of eighteen.
I’d say it’s a little from column A and a little from column B there.
What he doesn’t realise is that New Zealand has one of the highest per-capita rates of firearm ownership in the world- certainly outside Auckland, many households have a hunting rifle or shotgun in the wardrobe (even Granddad’s .303 from The War). I’d be more worried about accidentally getting shot whilst going for a hike in the McKenzie Country than I would in, say, Los Angeles.