Newtown, Connecticut, a town in USA I had not even heard the name of before today. And how I wish I had never heard that name on the news here in Sweden, and how I wish the tragedy there had never happened!
My heart and thoughts goes out to the victims and their families and friends, and to the survivors and their families and friends who'll have to live with the gruesome memories from this day.
One man, two handguns and a rifle, a total of 27 dead, including the gunman. It's such a tragedy it's hard to put words to it, and what's even worse is... It could all have been avoided!
I know there's a risk that many Americans will argue against me here, but so be it, you have to see this with the eyes of a non-American!
The American gun laws! While I do appreciate you have the right to protect your family and property from criminals, does that necessarily have to involve firearms? I know what you'll say here "but the criminals carry guns!", while yes, criminals carry guns, and you know why? BECAUSE THEY CAN LEGALLY OWN ONE!
The culture of basically being able to buy a gun in the shop around the corner, and being able to buy a pack of bullets together with your Tylenol is a recipe for disaster when criminals can get their hands on a gun as easily as anyone else. So what if the gun has to be registered in your name? A good person can turn bad anytime! There are so many examples of previously good citizens suddenly shooting wildly around them, maybe because they lost their job or a girlfriend broke up or something else that is only their business and shouldn't go out over innocent people just being in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Where I live, in Sweden, guns are outlawed. Only the police carry guns and military and armed guards may of course carry firearms. Licensed hunters may own the rifle(s) they need for their hunting, and the rules for storage etc of firearms here is very strict. Make a mistake and you may lose your license! Because our firearms laws are so strict, shootings are relatively rare and massacres are unheard of within the borders of Sweden. While yes, shootings DOES happen, it's not common and when it does happen, the gunman has acquired the gun in illegal ways and the weapon just happened to slip through at the border, it was smuggled here! Most of the time shootings are gang related and only very rarely is the victim just an innocent citizen.
The only massacre classed shootings here in Scandinavia in recent years was the school massacre in Finland the other year, think it was 2-4 years ago something. And then, the most "famous" one of all: The massacre in Norway last year! And guess what? Only the gunman in Finland owned his gun legally!
Finland has more liberal gun laws than the rest of Scandinavia, and it's also the only country around here that has had school massacres!
Now think more than once before you might try to argue FOR guns.
If no one could own a gun legally, it would also mean less criminals are armed with a gun because they'd have to get hold of one through the black market and the black market would be more limited. Which in the long run means it's less likely that the criminal that is breaking into your house or trying to rob you, is carrying a gun. You stand a much better chance at defending yourself against someone carrying a knife or bat, than against someone who has a gun, no matter if you have a gun or not! And not to forget all the gun related accidents where people shoot themselves by accident because the gun wasn't secured!
America, it's 2012, almost 2013, your amendment about guns is really old by now, it's something from the days of the wild wild west when phones didn't even exist and the sheriff came riding on a horse!
This is the modern days, there's phones, cellphones, the police drive cars, patrol constantly and they can be at your house or location within seconds of you making that call to 911. You also have the SWAT teams that are even more highly trained than the regular police, and the SWAT can also mobilize faster than you can say Quiddich.
If guns were outlawed in America, you wouldn't need to worry so much about criminals carrying a gun, because they wouldn't be able to buy it in every street corner!
I'm 27 and have lived in Scandinavia all my life. Only once have I heard gunshots, and that was while I lived in a student dorm in Copenhagen, two bullets were fired pretty much just outside my bedroom window. No injuries and the gunman was found about a month later, dead, he had taken his own life a few blocks away. The reason of the shooting? The gunman tried and failed to kidnap his girlfriend. That's by the way also one of the very few crimes involving firearms that hasn't been gang related or an armed robbery that I've heard of for many years, apart from the massacre in Finland and Norway.
I'd say I live in a safe country. I don't need to worry about having a gun poking my back as soon as I step outside the door or worry about an armed lunatic breaking into my home. During the one week I've visited America in the past, I constantly worried about guns, having a hotel room on the ground floor certainly didn't ease my mind!
Guns doesn't provide safety, guns are only dangerous!
