# Non-Americans : What is your reaction to the US gun control debate ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-is-your-reaction-to-the-us-gun-control-debate/648448 "2013-01-26T17:53:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-is-your-reaction-to-the-us-gun-control-debate/648448/141 "2013-01-29T12:37:01Z")
> [@SecretaryofEvil](#): > > OK, this isn’t me shouting down someone’s opinion. I thank DrumBum for his (her?) perspective. I will note that Angola’s murder rate seems to be a great deal higher than America’s. But the numbers I can find for Angola seem to date back to 2008. Has there been a dramatic drop in violent crime in the past couple of years? I say this with genuine curiosity because I don’t know that much about Angola. I’m not trying to prove some jingoistic political point. You are correct that the crime rate has increased but a much of this seems to be petty street crimes - pick-pocketing, purse snatching, car break-in’s, etc. The majority of these crimes are against Angolans but I do know a few expats that were accosted at knife point. It was on a side street but they had no money/jewelry so the robbers left without incident. We all have drivers that keep us out of trouble and, as it is with any big city, there are places in Luanda you simply don’t go to at night. Strangely enough, some of the more recent violent crimes have been against Chinese that are working here in Luanda. As it turned out, the crimes were committed by other Chinese, who were caught and have been sent back to China. It was quite a sensational story that made the front pages and the evening news. The information on the number of guns and and murders was from one of the security staff who pointed me to this [article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list) and to the US Embassy notices. I also get the local newspaper -Jornal de Angola - which covers Luanda as well as the other provinces. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-is-your-reaction-to-the-us-gun-control-debate/648448/142 "2013-01-29T16:18:13Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#): > > Honestly, it kind of scares me. I sometimes joke that we need to put a fence around the U.S. and just ‘let them take care of themselves’ and eventually they’ll kill each other and the rest of the world will move on. Of course, I know not all Americans are the same, and I’m sure there are many that have a more global point of view, but the loudest are the ones that I hear, and the loudest right now are the pro-gun folks. > > I don’t know really what to say. I try not to get involved. But unfortunately a lot of the people I speak to are of the opinion that the U.S. is becoming more and more radical, which is frightening. Will I still visit? Probably. Would I ever live there? Hell to the no. Just remember that as more extreme ideas/movements start to die off, they get more radical and noisy. Guns and religion are , IMO as a U.S. citizen, are in decline and this provokes radicalness and noise. Just trying to cheer you up about your fear. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-is-your-reaction-to-the-us-gun-control-debate/648448/143 "2013-01-29T21:02:41Z")
> [@SecretaryofEvil](#): > > You might consider that a problem. Honestly that’s one of the things I love about America. > > A couple of years back I was in Paris and this Danish fellow who bummed a cigarette from me said pretty much the exact same thing, and he meant it negatively. But, as I explained to him, I genuinely do favor individual rights over societal obligations. I value freedom very highly. Now, I recognize that there has to be certain limits. Not falsely shouting fire in crowded theater is an example of a limitation of freedom that very few people disagree with. Whether citizens should be allowed to own firearms has less agreement, and I just don’t find that preposterous. I, like many Americans and people from other countries, am very wary about surrendering any type of freedom. Valuing freedom isn’t unique to the U.S., by the way.😉 Canadians are free to own guns too, but we also expect to be free from deadly idiots with guns. Stricter controls and regulations are there to protect the public, not to punish responsible gun owners who, to repeat for emphasis, are still free to own guns. There’s no denying what a powerful instrument the U.S. Constitution is with respect to individual rights, but as **Cat Whisperer** said, the freedom to own guns is just one side of the coin. From here, it looks like the Constitution is being abused to not just allow, but actively encourage, the widespread proliferation of deadly weapons among the whole population, which guarantees that too many guns fall into irresponsible hands. In the name of the individual’s right to bear arms, the societal rights of the general public against random gun violence have been short changed. My take on the American gun culture can be summed up like this: Without a gun, an idiot is just an idiot. With a constitutional right to bear arms, he’s a deadly menace to society. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-americans-what-is-your-reaction-to-the-us-gun-control-debate/648448.md?page=7)